
From- a Picture "by &. Watson P. S.A.. 



£dzrd>uryh, Published, by W.Whyte& C? 2831. 



SERMONS 



AND 



SACRAMENTAL EXHORTATIONS. 



/ 

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D. 

MINISTER OF ST. GEORGE^ CHURCH, EDINBURGH. 



EDINBURGH : 
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO. 

WILLIAM COLLINS AND M. OGLE, GLASGOW ; 
J. DEWAR, PERTH ; 
AND LONGMAN, & CO. LONDON. 

M.DCCC.XXXI. 



EDINBURGH 

PRINTED BY A. BALFOUR AND CO. NIDDRY STREET. 



TO THE 



SESSION AND CONGREGATION 

OF 

ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, 

EDINBURGH, 
THIS VOLUME OF DISCOURSES 

BY 

THEIR LATE PASTOR 

is 

RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

MEMOIR OF DR. THOMSON xi 

SERMON I. 

SALVATION BY GRACE. 

For by grace are ye saved through faith. — Ephes. ii. 6 1 

SERMON II. 

HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perad venture 
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for us. — Romans v. 7, 8 32 

EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION 52 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON III. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 

Page 

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. — Psalm lxxxix. 
15 67 



SERMON IV. 

SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old 
things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new. — 
2 Corinth, v. 17 



SERMON V. 

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 

For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in 
simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by 
the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, 
and more abundantly to you-ward. — 2 Corinth, i. 12 117 



SERMON VI. 



THE CHRISTIAN S CHOICE. 



And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose ye this day 
whom ye shall serve — Josh. xxiv. 15 134 



SERMON VII. 

CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 
I was a stranger, and ye took me in. — Matth. xxv. 35 161 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



SERMON VIII. 

THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS EXAGGERATED. 

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own mas- 
ters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doc- 
trine be not blasphemed. — 1 Tim. vi. 1 189 

SERMON IX. 

THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS NO ARGUMENT AGAINST 
CHRISTIANITY. 

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own mas- 
ters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doc- 
trine be not blasphemed. — 1 Tim. vi. 1 208 

SERMON X. 

THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS NO ARGUMENT AGAINST 
CHRISTIANITY. 

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own mas- 
ters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doc- 
trine be not blasphemed. — 1 TiM.vi. 1 223 

SERMON XL 

THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS IN REFERENCE TO THE OBJECTION 
FOUNDED ON THEIR IMPERFECTIONS. 

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own mas- 
ters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doc- 
trine be not blasphemed. — 1 Tim. vi. 1 241 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON XII. 

THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS IN REFERENCE TO THE OBJECTION 
FOUNDED ON THEIR IMPERFECTIONS. 

Page 

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own 
masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his 
doctrine be not blasphemed. — 1 Tim. vi. 1 258 



SERMON XIII. 

ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 

Ask, and it shall be given you. — Matt. vii. 7 277 

EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION 296 

SERMON XIV. 

ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 

Ask, and it shall be given you, — Matt. vii. 7 308 



SERMON XV. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 

Is any among you afflicted ? Let him pray. — James v. 13 325 



CONTENTS. IX 
SERMON XVI. 

THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 

Page 

Save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved. — Jerem. xvii. 14- 353 

EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION 377 

SERMON XVII. 

SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 

Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no Physician there ? 
Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people re- 
covered? — Jerem. viii- 22 395 

SERMON XVIII. 

CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 

I was dumb, I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it. — 
Psalm xxxix. 9 414 

SERMON XIX. 

THE ACCEPTED TIME. 

Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of 
Salvation. — 2 Corinth, vi. 2 434 

SERMON XX. 

VIEWS OF DEATH. 

Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their 

dust. — Psalm civ. 29 45<> 

b 



X 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON XXI. 

CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 

Page 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. — 1 Corinth, 
xv, 58 478 



SERMON XXII. 

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. 

Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast 
been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. — 
2 Tim. iii. 13 495 



MEMOIR 

OF 

DR. THOMSON. 



The time has not perhaps arrived when justice can 
be done to an extended Memoir of the late Dr. 
Thomson, a task which it is to be hoped some 
of his early friends will be induced to undertake. 
In the mean time, the following brief notice may 
not be unacceptable, as an introduction to a volume 
of his posthumous discourses. 

Dr. Andrew Thomson was born at Sanquhar, in 
Dumfries-shire, on the 11th of July 1779. His 
father was the late Dr. John Thomson, one of the 
ministers of Edinburgh ; at the time of his son's 
birth, minister of Sanquhar, and, subsequently, of 
Markinch in Fife. The subject of this Memoir, 
without affording any striking proof of premature 
scholarship, from which an augury of his future fame 

c 



xii 



MEMOIR OF 



might have been drawn, was remarkable from his 
earliest years for intelligence and vivacity, and es- 
pecially for that free, manly, openhearted character, 
which, in after life, gave him so strong a hold on 
the affections of all who intimately knew him. It 
is difficult to say at what precise period his thoughts 
first turned seriously to the ministry : but he had 
not been many years at college before he exhibited 
decided symptoms of the power of that vital re- 
ligion, which forms the first and best qualification 
for the sacred office. 

Early in 1802 he was licensed to preach the 
gospel, by the presbytery of Kelso ; and on the 11th 
of March of the same year, he was ordained minis- 
ter of the parish of Sprouston, within the bounds 
of the presbytery from which he had received li- 
cence, Shortly after his settlement at Sprouston, 
he married Miss Carmichael, by whom he had ten 
children, seven of whom are still alive. The result 
of this union was all the happiness which the mar- 
riage relation can afford ; interrupted only, to the 
afflicted survivor, by the melancholy event which 
has deprived her and her family of the society of 
one, who, if possible, was still more attractive and 
delightful in the family circle, than he was com- 
manding and distinguished in the public walks of 
professional and active life. 

During his ministry at Sprouston, Dr. Thomson 
displayed the same vigour, earnestness, and fidelity, 
by which his labours, in more extensive spheres, 
were subsequently characterised. His interest in 



DR. THOMSON. 



xiii 



the external affairs of the church, was manifested 
by the share he began to take in the business of the 
ecclesiastical courts of which he was a member ; 
while of his anxiety to promote the higher interests 
of religion, a satisfactory evidence exists in the 
catechism on the Lord's Supper, which he published 
for the benefit of the young among his parishioners ; 
a work which has passed through many editions ; 
and which we have reason to know, has proved 
eminently useful to many besides those for whose 
use it was originally designed. 

In the year 1808, Dr. Thomson was removed 
to the East Church, Perth. Here, in conjunction 
with his brother, and others of his friends, ministers 
of Perth and its neighbourhood, he lived happily, 
and laboured successfully, till the spring of 1810, 
when he received a presentation from the magistrates 
and council of Edinburgh, to the New Grey friars 
church in that city. In this situation, better adapted 
to his talents, and to the active character of his 
mind than either of the preceding, he entered on a 
course of ministerial service, which proved in no 
ordinary degree acceptable and useful. Many who 
have since distinguished themselves for Christian 
worth and attainments, owed their first religious 
impressions to his discourses in the New Greyfriars. 
To the young especially, and the students attend- 
ing the university, his ministry was at this period 
peculiarly attractive. Previously to his coming to 
Edinburgh, it had been too much the policy of the 
town-council of that city to translate, from the 



MEMOIR OF 



country to churches in their gift, ministers of con- 
siderable age and standing, whose habits and whose 
style of preaching were formed ; and who, from 
these circumstances, were less qualified than younger 
men to adapt their ministrations to the intelligence 
and taste of their new audience ; who, coming from 
the country, where they had perhaps acquired a 
character for eloquence of a certain popular, 
though not very accurate or refined description, 
and finding some change necessary, felt themselves 
at a loss how to proceed ; and being neither willing 
to adhere to their former standard, nor able to con- 
form to a better, sank down into inertness and in- 
efficiency ; satisfied with the substitution of tame 
correctness for the vigorous, though homely strain 
of their former pulpit addresses. At no period, per- 
haps, could this have been the case with the ener- 
getic and versatile mind of the subject of this Me- 
moir. Happily, however, the time of life at which 
he entered on his labours in Edinburgh conspired 
with the peculiar turn of his mind, to render, in his 
instance, the adaptation of his pulpit ministrations 
natural and easy. In the opening vigour of his fa- 
culties, and with the habits of study which necessity 
imposes even on country clergymen at an early 
period of their ministry, Dr. Thomson commenced 
that arduous but effective course of public service 
in the metropolis of Scotland, which it was his pri- 
vilege to prosecute, with unabated vigour, to the 
close of his life. Those who recollect the period to 
which we now refer as the commencement of that 



DR. THOMSON. 



XV 



course, will remember the powerful impression pro- 
duced on the mind of the public at large, by the 
commanding appeals of his occasional sermons for 
charitable objects ; while those who enjoyed the 
benefit of his ordinary Sabbath ministrations, will 
recall with delight, and many of them with feelings 
deeper and more grateful than those of mere delight, 
the effect created by his lucid expositions of sacred 
Scripture, and by his earnest, eloquent, and affec- 
tionate addresses on the topics of Christian doctrine 
and Christian duty. 

A few months after his admission into Edinburgh, 
Dr. Thomson, with the assistance of several of his 
clerical brethren, in the church and in the seces- 
sion, commenced the publication of the Christian 
Instructor ; a work that, in spite of the disfavour 
with which, in certain quarters, it has been regard- 
ed, and a want of the support which it justly merit- 
ed from the friends both of religion and of the esta- 
blishment, has been the means of doing incalculable 
service, in many ways, to the cause of Christianity. 
As a monument of Dr. Thomson's indefatigable 
activity, the work has perhaps no parallel. For 
many years, not only did the task of editorship fall 
exclusively upon Dr. Thomson, but to him it was 
indebted for a large proportion of the best articles, 
whether in the miscellaneous or critical department, 
which, in the face of circumstances that tended to 
obstruct its circulation, and injure its popularity, 
continued to extort for it, from the religious public, 
a great share of favourable regard. 



XVI 



MEMOIR OF 



The charge of the Christian Instructor was not, 
however, his sole literary undertaking. To the 
Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, conducted by Dr. Brews- 
ter, he contributed many articles, some of them of 
considerable interest, and all of them indicative of 
the patience of his research, the soundness of his 
judgment, and the unaffected vigour of his style. 

In the year 1814, St. George's church, which 
had been for some years building, was ready for 
public worship, and was opened on Sunday the 
5th of June of that year, by the late Rev. Sir 
Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, Bart., who preached 
from Ecclesiastes v. 1. As the individual best 
qualified to fill a very large structure, situate at that 
time at the extremity of the city, Dr. Thomson was 
fixed upon as its minister, and to this charge he was 
admitted on Thursday the 16th of June 1814. 
Here the more public and brilliant part of his course 
commenced. He had difficulties to encounter, both 
in collecting and in retaining a congregation, which 
would have had a depressing effect on the mind of 
most men. To Dr. Thomson, however, who of all 
men was formed to contend with, and to master 
difficulties, these only gave interest to his new si- 
tuation. They had no other effect on his elastic 
and enterprising spirit than to incite him to redou- 
bled exertions, and to a more energetic display of 
ministerial fidelity. Being possessed of great natu- 
ral fluency in point both of thought and of expres- 
sion, he had not, up to the period of his appoint- 
ment to St. George's, been in the regular habit of 



DR. THOMSON. 



writing- out his discourses. Aware, however, of 
the importance of correctness and variety, in com- 
positions addressed to an audience, composed chiefly 
of the higher classes of society in such a city as 
Edinburgh, he formed the resolution of adopting a 
new practice, and of preaching nothing which he 
had not carefully studied and prepared. In this 
way, while he followed a plan recommended by 
considerations both of duty and of expediency, he 
voluntarily incurred a new amount of labour. For 
many years, he weekly composed and wrote two 
discourses for the pulpit ; and this at a time, when, 
in addition to other avocations, he was engaged in 
forming a ministerial acquaintance with a congre- 
gation unusually large, and composed of persons to 
whom the slight and hasty notices of ordinary pa- 
rochial visitation would not have been appropriate. 

But, if thus he added to his labours, he had also 
the satisfaction of perceiving that he had secured 
his usefulness. Over a description of persons, by 
many of whom, at the commencement of his minis* 
try in St. George's, the peculiar doctrines and obli- 
gations of the gospel were little known or relished, 
Dr. Thomson speedily acquired an influence scarcely 
ever possessed by any preacher. Nor is it neces- 
sary to say, that he owed this enviable ascendency 
to no compromise of principle — to no unworthy ac- 
commodation of divine truth to the prejudices of 
his audience. In addressing himself to a congre- 
gation peculiarly exclusive and sensitive, he stood 
upon the high ground of his office as an ambassador 



xviii 



PtfEMOIR OF 



for Christ ; and with the apostle of the Gentiles, 
to whose bold unfearing character his own in many 
points bore a striking resemblance, he determined 
to know nothing, as the subject of his ministry, but 
Jesus Christ, and him crucified. How fully, effec- 
tively, and perseveringly, he adhered to his system, 
the recollection of his hearers, as well as the strain 
of his published discourses amply testify. The pe- 
culiar qualifications which he brought to his task 
are, at the same time, not to be overlooked. 
To a manner of great animation and fire, yet re- 
strained and dignified, he added a style of uncom- 
mon simplicity and spirit, which nature enabled him 
to set off to advantage by the tones of a voice re- 
markable for compass and harmony. He delight- 
ed in argument ; but his arguments were of that 
direct, palpable, practical character which stimu- 
late attention* and admit of being appreciated and 
followed by the most ordinary understanding ; while 
the truths he laboured to establish, were all of ac- 
knowledged importance, bore so intimate a relation 
to the system which, as a Christian minister, it was 
his province to illustrate and enforce, and came so 
closely and powerfully home to every man's heart and 
conscience, that nothing could appear more natural 
than the pains he took to explain and defend them. 
As in the clear fountain of his thoughts, there were 
no turbid elements — no confusion of ideas — no ob- 
scure images — no surface on which a wayward 
fancy could paint the fluctuating figures of its own 
changeful extravagance — so in his discourses, all 



DR. THOMSON. 



xix 



was simple, perspicuous, unaffected, and intelligible. 
Imagination was not perhaps his distinctive faculty ; 
yet, even of the glow and peculiar effect of a well- 
disciplined imagination, his compositions were not 
destitute. When he chose, he could be tender, de- 
scriptive, and impassioned ; and when he indulged 
neither in declamation addressed to the fancy, nor 
in appeals which went to the heart, he uniformly 
commanded attention by the clearness of his 
statements, the force of his reasonings, and the 
pointed and practical strain of his exhortations. 
It has been well remarked of him, that few 
men, and especially few public instructors, ever 
displayed a greater practical acquaintance with 
human nature, or could turn their knowledge to 
better account. His hearers accordingly, however 
secular their habits, could not but feel that they 
were addressed by one intimately conversant with 
life and manners : they could not evade the 
force of his arguments and lessons, by ascribing 
them to the ignorance or austerity of their instruc- 
tor : they could not but perceive in his delineations 
of character, a faithful mirror, in which their own 
modes of thinking and acting were exhibited to the 
life ; nor could they be insensible to the value of 
warnings and of counsels, in which the acuteness 
of the man of liberal ideas and of general ob- 
servation, was blended with the wisdom of the 
moralist, and the sanctity of the Christian and the 
Divine. 

To causes such as these, accordingly, we are to 



XX 



MEMOIR OF 



ascribe the high place which Dr. Thomson acquired 
and held in the estimation of the religions public 
of Edinburgh. Nor, in any review of the religious 
history of the period, will the deserved fame of Dr. 
Thomson be overlooked, as one of the causes of the 
revived taste for the faithful preaching of the gos- 
pel which has happily characterised Edinburgh for 
the last fifteen or twenty years. 

But Dr. Thomson was not satisfied with merely 
preaching the gospel. For many years after his 
appointment to St. George's, he employed the in- 
terval between the forenoon and afternoon services, 
in catechising the young belonging to the congre- 
gation : and this exercise he performed in a manner 
that had the effect, in an uncommon degree, of 
uniting to him the hearts both of parents and 
children. 

Among the excellent practices recommended by 
the standards of the Church of Scotland, and by 
the example of the best of her ministers in her purest 
times, is that of week-day meetings in the church, 
for the purpose of instruction in the principles of 
religion, as these are taught in the Shorter Cate- 
chism. To attendance on such meetings in a city 
like Edinburgh some practical objections have been 
raised ; and with a view to obviate these, Dr. 
Thomson instituted a lecture, in which, without 
placing any one in the trying situation of a catechu- 
men, he made use of a question in the catechism 
by way of text ; and explaining and illustrating it 
in a manner adapted to all capacities, he went over 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxi 



the ground usually traversed in these exercises. 
For several years he continued these week-day 
expositions, during a limited period of the summer 
months, and was only induced to relinquish them, 
in consequence of repeated and alarming attacks of 
indisposition, which taught him the necessity of 
imposing a restraint upon the otherwise unwearied 
zeal of his active and benevolent mind. 

In the youth of his congregation, Dr. Thomson, 
as we have observed, took a warm and affectionate 
interest. In his parish, he found there were many 
of this class whom his Sabbath instructions could 
not reach — young persons who either did not attend 
his church, or whose circumstances and those of 
their parents rendered a greater degree of tuition 
necessary, than it was possible to afford them on 
the Lord's day. To meet their case, accordingly, 
Dr. Thomson projected a week-day school. His 
influence enabled him speedily to raise the funds 
requisite for the erection of a suitable school-house ; 
and the facility with which he could adapt himself 
to the operations of benevolence, enabled him to 
carry into effect the other means necessary to the 
completion of his plan. As his experience in the 
task of instructing the young of his congregation 
had shown him how much could be done with young 
people, by addressing their understanding and their 
affections, he undertook at once to compile suitable 
books for the different classes into which the school 
was divided, and for a time to act as teacher and 



XXil 



MEMOIR OF 



superintendent in tlie school. Far from despising 
what to other minds would have appeared to be 
drudgery, regarding it indeed with fondness, and 
entering into it with his whole heart, he spent 
entire days in teaching the children of the lower 
classes of his parish the elementary principles of 
education and religion, and passed from the school- 
house to his study, only to prosecute the other 
department of his labour of love ; and, amid the 
humble toils of an author of first books for children, 
to lose sight of those more inviting objects of ambi- 
tion after which a mind like his might have been 
expected exclusively to aspire. 

From nature he had received an exquisite ear 
and taste for music ; and, upon the principle of con- 
secrating all the gifts of nature to the service of 
his Master, he undertook a reformation of that part 
of the devotional service of the sanctuary which 
consists of praise. To him, in a great measure, 
are to be traced the recent improvements that have 
been effected in the psalmody of several churches 
in this city. His own church set the example ; 
and for their use, and the better to accomplish his 
object, he drew up a collection of the most approved 
psalm tunes, all of which he carefully revised ; and 
to which he added several original compositions, 
and a few of great beauty of his own. It may not 
be uninteresting to record, that but a few weeks 
before his death, he issued a circular, addressed to 
the members of his congregation, renewing his 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxiii 



affectionate admonitions on the subject cf church 
music, which he justly regarded as an expression of 
piety, and a help to devotion. 

Nor were his private labours less abundant. 
Great as he was in the public sphere of his exer- 
tions, it may be questioned whether he did not ap- 
pear even to more advantage in the less-noticed 
walks of pastoral visitation among the families of 
his flock. His breast, naturally full of kindness, 
expatiated as in a congenial sphere, while he sat by 
the sick-bed of those who looked to him for conso- 
lation, or directed the hopes of the bereaved and 
the dying to the land of promise and of rest. They 
who knew him only as he appeared in the field of 
controversy, or on the high places of debate, or 
even in " the great congregation," where he pour- 
ed forth " words that breathed and thoughts that 
burned," and held attention chained, till conviction 
came and owned his power, can scarcely imagine 
the air of tenderness and unaffected brotherhood 
and sympathy, that pervaded his look and manner, 
in the more private offices of pastoral intercourse 
with the afflicted. It had pleased Providence of- 
ten to try him during the course of his ministry : 
his mind, naturally full of affection and sensibility, 
had undergone a variety of discipline. From what 
he himself had felt, therefore, as well as from what 
his friendly heart could imagine, he entered with 
lively interest into all the causes of inquietude or 
suffering, under which any of his flock might be la- 
bouring. To none could the sorrowful more freely 



xxiv 



MEMOIR OF 



unburden their griefs ; from none could the per- 
plexed and fearful more confidently ask advice ; and 
on none could the young and the inexperienced 
more certainly calculate for sympathy in their anx- 
ieties, and assistance in regard to the objects they 
had in view. And while thus to those who knew 
him, (and who, if had they chosen, might not have 
known him ?) he was a brother and a friend, all 
that he did was conceived in a spirit, and marked 
by a manner of most perfect unaffectedness. In 
his kindness there was nothing like effect ; nothing 
like exaggeration ; nothing that bore the remotest 
resemblance to acting. Nature reigned in all his 
words and deeds ; and his whole conduct left on 
the mind the impression only of genuine, unpretend- 
ing friendship. There was a manliness, too, in his 
kindness which was in strict keeping with the other 
parts of his character, and which helped to heighten 
the impression of reality produced by the general 
tone of his intercourse. It was the same man who 
in other circumstances could lighten, and agitate, 
and hold imperial sway over the passions of the 
most crowded meeting, who sat beside you as a 
friend, and addressed you in the words and accents 
of undissembled interest and regard. 

But it was not merely as a parish minister, per- 
forming the full round of ordinary pastoral duty, 
that Dr. Thomson was remarkable. As a minister 
of the Church of Scotland, he was a member of her 
judicatories, and entrusted with the functions of an 
administrator of her laws. Justly conceiving every 



DR. THOMSON. 



XXV 



part of his duty to have a claim upon him, and ap- 
preciating the beneficial influence which his situa- 
tion enabled him to exert on the interests of the 
establishment and of Christianity, he appeared re- 
gularly in his place in church courts, and took on 
him a large proportion of the burden of the bu- 
siness that came before these assemblies. Indeed, 
for the last few years of his life, such was his ac- 
quaintance with form, such his aptitude in the ap- 
plication of precedents and statutes, such his abi- 
lity and eloquence in debate, and such the estima- 
tion in which his opinions and character were held, 
that that party in the church to which he was con- 
scientiously attached, and which must always re- 
gard it as not the least of its distinctions and re- 
commendations to have numbered him among its 
adherents, spontaneously, and by silent consent, 
looked up to him as its leader. 

This is not the place for detail, otherwise it 
would be easy to record numerous instances of the 
zeal and effect with which he maintained the an- 
cient struggle of the church against the inroads 
of a debasing and secularizing policy. In every 
question of principle he espoused the side of truth 
and justice, in opposition to the maxims of expe- 
diency ; a regard to which, where there exists 
a definite moral rule of conduct, he justly regarded 
as the bane of churches and of public institutions. 
With admiration, mingled with affectionate regret, 
many of the readers of this sketch will recall the 
triumphs of his eloquence on the highest theatre of 



xxvi 



MEMOIR OF 



its display — the General Assembly ; and will ac- 
company the recollection with a profound feeling 
of gratitude to the man who so often lifted up his 
intrepid voice, in tones that found an echo in every 
parish in Scotland, against the power that would 
thrust upon a people hungering for the bread of life, 
a heartless and unqualified pastor ; who fearlessly 
stood forth the champion of resistance to the man- 
dates of unauthorized dictation and intrusive influ- 
ence ; and who, with an energy and eloquence all 
his own, repudiated and denounced that union of 
secular with ecclesiastical offices, by which the sa- 
credness of the pastoral character is deteriorated, 
and the unity of the pastoral obligation is violated. 
If to him the church be not indebted for a return 
to the principles and practices by which she was 
characterised in the days when, purified by perse- 
cution, she stood first among the churches of the 
Reformation — to him, and to the kindred labours 
of our Erskines and our Moncrieffs whose mantle 
he had caught, does she in a great measure owe the 
remembrance of these principles and practices. By 
his exertions, in no inconsiderable degree, the an- 
cient landmarks of our ecclesiastical constitution 
have been kept prominently in view ; a desire for 
something better than the existing order of things 
has been preserved and transmitted ; the watch- 
words of primitive order and popular rights have 
been dignified and hallowed by an association with 
a mighty name ; and a prospect has been opened 
to the hopes of the church of brighter days, and 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxvii 



of " times of refreshing from the presence of the 
Lord." 

But while he was thus, firmly, and on principle, 
identified with a particular party in the church, 
few men displayed in private life less of the narrow 
and exclusive spirit of party. His attachment to 
principles he bore with him everywhere : but the 
animosity and grudging, which are apt to cleave to 
minds of a secondary order, were strangers to his 
bosom ; and with the men with whom he entered 
into keenest conflict on the arena of debate, he 
could meet on terms of the most unhesitating good 
will when the struggle was over, willing to ex- 
change with them all the courtesies of social inter- 
course, or to co-operate with them in any good 
work in which they might require his aid, or solicit 
his countenance. His was a mind that spurned 
the baseness of smothered resentment. He knew 
nothing of the creeping feeling that is " willing to 
wound, but yet afraid to strike." What he felt he 
expressed strongly and boldly ; and if a brother 
felt aggrieved, none was more forward than he to 
make allowance for the expression of irritated feel- 
ing ; or if, in a hasty moment, he had given unde- 
signed cause of offence, none was more prompt in 
making reparation. If he was a formidable, his 
opponents will allow, that he was also an open, 
and a generous antagonist. 

As a minister of the church of Scotland, he was 
deeply and conscientiously attached to her institu- 
te 



XXV in 



MEMOIR OF 



tions and her interests. But because, as a church- 
man, he walked about our Zion, and went round 
about her, telling her towers, admiring her palaces, 
and employing all his energies in the defence of 
her bulwarks, his was not that exclusive and 
churlish spirit which saw nothing but barrenness 
beyond the enclosure, within which Providence 
had cast his lot. He mingled freely and cordially 
with dissenters of all descriptions, in whom he could 
trace the characters of genuine Christianity. The 
strength of his own convictions, as a churchman, 
only gave him a stronger sympathy in the consci- 
entious convictions of the persons who differed from 
him. He felt too, that the cause he had embraced, 
was in no danger from any compliances which, on 
the ground of good feeling, or social observance, he 
might be induced to make. Above all, he felt that 
the differences between the great bodies of dissen- 
ters in this country, and the church of which he was 
a member, bore no proportion to the bond which 
unites Christians of every name in the fellowship of 
" one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all." That alone which repelled him in 
a dissenting brother, was a display on the part of 
that brother of the qualities which he himself ab- 
horred, and of which no trace, to an unprejudiced 
eye, could be discovered in his conduct. 

Although it was impossible that a mind like his 
could be indifferent to anything that concerned the 
well-being of his country, he took no public share 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxix 



in party politics. That he had decided views on all 
the important questions that divided the political 
world during the eventful period in which he lived, 
is certainly true ; and that in private, or on any 
occasion in which his duty as a member of ecclesi- 
astical courts called for the expression of his opinion, 
he was ready to express that opinion frankly and 
fearlessly, is equally true : but to his honour, it is to 
be recorded, that with a mind peculiarly awake to 
whatever involved the interests or the fame of his 
country, and with talents that peculiarly fitted him 
for maintaining* the first place in all discussions of a 
public and exciting nature, so strong was his sense 
of the sacredness of the ministerial character, and 
so ready was he to sink all inferior or individual 
considerations in a regard to the solemn interests 
that were suspended on his relation to his flock, 
that he uniformly stood aloof from scenes of politi- 
cal contention, and bequeathed, in his example, an 
instructive illustration of the power of religious 
principle in enforcing self-denial, as to things in 
themselves lawful, but which in certain circum- 
stances may not be expedient. Yet while such was 
the enlightened principle by which he was guided, 
it were a sacrifice of truth not to add, that his for- 
bearance did not always meet the award it deserv- 
ed. With a certain class of minds, nothing but 
perfect, uninquiring, unhesitating acquiescence in 
all the dogmas they may happen to have adopted, 
is regarded with favour ; and to minds of this de- 



XXX 



MEMOIR OF 



scription, the manly independent views of Di\ 
Thomson were peculiarly unpalatable, Had he 
been an ordinary man, they might, without remark, 
have suffered him to pursue the course his consci- 
ence dictated, even had that course led him to min- 
gle deeply in the strifes of party. But for such a 
man not to be with them, was, in their eyes, a crime 
of scarcely less magnitude than to be against them. 
Perhaps, too, there mingled in the asperity with 
which they were disposed to regard him, an un- 
conscious conviction, that, think what they would, 
and say what they might, he was able to bear it all. 
But whatever was their motive, and however mixed 
that motive might be, certain it is, it had the effect 
of exposing his conduct on some occasions to unjusti- 
fiable misconstruction ; and on others to a degree 
of censure and animadversion, on which, it is pos- 
sible the parties concerned now look back with sin- 
cere, though, as it relates to him, unavailing regret. 

In addition to the interest which he felt and ma- 
nifested in whatever was connected with his duty 
as a minister, he took upon him a large share of 
the management of the city charities and of those 
public institutions which have for their object the 
alleviation of the temporal wants or the spiritual 
miseries of mankind. He was ever ready at the 
call of the public, either to act as a director of its 
various societies, or to plead their cause from the 
pulpit. And this co-operation on his part with all 
that was benevolent and useful, was rendered with 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxxi 



a cordiality and a cheerfulness, that put the idea of 
obligation out of sight ; and invited new and in- 
creasing demands on his leisure and attention. 

From this principle of benevolent interest in the 
religious institutions of the country, sprang the part 
he so prominently took, in the recent discussions to 
which certain well known proceedings of the di- 
rectors of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
have unhappily given rise. From the commence- 
ment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, he 
entered warmly into its views. With the great 
body of the Christian public, he regarded its insti- 
tution as an era in the history of the church of 
Christ ; he saw in it a mighty instrument of en- 
lightened philanthropy ; and he hailed it as a pre- 
sage of the predicted glory of the latter days. 
When it was struggling for existence against the 
calumnies and attacks of mistaken and narrow- 
minded zeal, he fought its battles : and with justice 
he was esteemed one of its warmest friends and 
ablest advocates. Unhappily, however, when war 
had ceased without, the elements of a more fatal 
convulsion began to gather and to show themselves 
within. To the astonishment of the confiding 
friends of the institution, it was demonstrated, be- 
yond the possibility of dispute, that while, accord- 
ing to the leading principle of the Society, the Bi- 
ble, without note or comment, was the only book 
which its directors were empowered to circulate, 
its funds were applied to the printing and circula- 
tion of a Bible unknown to the protestants of this 



xxxii 



MEMOIR OF 



country — a Bible in which the writings known by 
the name of " the Apocrypha," were mixed up, 
and put on a level with those ' 6 Scriptures which 
are given by inspiration of God/' It is not too 
much to say, that the discovery came upon the 
Christian public with the force of a thunderbolt. 
All confidence in men, or in the most solemn pro- 
testations and professions, seemed to be at an end ; 
and the first impulse, on the part of all who gave 
the subject an unbiassed consideration, was to de- 
mand not only that there should be an immediate 
return to the primary principle of the Society, but 
that its management should no longer be committed 
to men who had shown themselves incapable of 
being bound by what appeared the strongest ob- 
ligations of Christian principle and moral feeling. 
Here it had been well, if first impressions had 
been consulted. To many of the friends of the in- 
stitution, however, the Bible Society had been so 
long identified with the Bible which it professed to 
circulate, that the idea of abandoning it, seemed 
fraught with hazard to the best interests and hopes 
of Christianity. When, therefore, the directors of 
the Society, instead of listening to the remonstrances 
that were addressed to them from all quarters, and 
especially from the friends of the Society in Edin- 
burgh, attempted to justify their conduct, on the 
pretext of an alleged ambiguity in the terms in 
which the object of the institution was expressed, 
and even on the ground of expediency, many of 
those with whom Dr. Thomson had previously as- 



DR. THOMSON* 



xxx iii 



sociated, withdrew their testimony against the pro- 
ceedings in question, expressed satisfaction with 
certain half-measures to which the directors pledged 
themselves for the future, and intimated an earnest 
anxiety that all farther allusion to the past should 
be dropped. To the ardent mind of Dr. Thomson, 
such a course, whether on the part of the directors 
in London, or of their friends in Edinburgh, seem- 
ed nothing short of a dereliction of the first duty 
which man owes to the gracious Being who, in 
giving us a revelation of his will, has entrusted us 
with a talent which we can never do enough to 
guard from injury, and to preserve untarnished 
and entire as it reached us from his hands. With 
his characteristic energy, he enlisted himself on the 
side of what he conceived, and rightly conceived, 
to be the cause both of God and man ; and sum- 
moning the resources of his powerful mind to the 
task, he devoted many of the days and nights of 
the latter years of his life in following the misjudg- 
ing adherents of the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, through the maze of misrepresentation and 
sophistry, into which their short-sighted policy or 
obsequious predilections had plunged them. In 
this labour, worthy of a mind devoted, in the face 
of good report and of bad report, to the service of 
God, but from which a mind cast in a less firm 
mould would have shrunk, he had the satisfaction 
of carrying with him the convictions and the suf- 
frages of a large majority of the people of Scotland. 
Yet, if for a moment he dreamed that the path 



xxxiv 



MEMOIR OF 



on which he had entered was level and smooth, he 
was speedily destined to learn his mistake. Re- 
proaches and misrepresentations assailed him from 
quarters whence he had least reason to expect them. 
Some of the persons who had stood by his side at 
the commencement of the conflict, and who had 
rendered themselves conspicuous by the forward- 
ness of their zeal, if not by the soundness of their 
discretion, thought fit to desert him ; and others, on 
whose countenance and aid he might reasonably 
have calculated, looked coldly on, and chafed his 
spirit, if they could not sour his temper, or damp 
his exertions, by the tone of their advice.* 

It is not to be doubted, that the effect produced 
upon Dr. Thomson's mind, by the manner in which 
some of the leading advocates of the directors of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society conducted 
their share, of what has been called " The Apoc- 
ryphal Controversy," made an impression on his 
health. Naturally of a more than usually robust 
constitution, he was capable of undergoing great 
fatigues \ nor was his temper of that sensitive and 
morbid character which dwells upon imagined 

f Yet, " Raro eminentes viri non magnis adjutoribus usi sunt ; ut 
duo Scipiones, duobus Lseliis, quos per omnia aiquaverunt sibi ; ut Di- 
vus Augustus M. Agrippa;"— and the truth of this remark of the Ro- 
man historian, Dr. Thomson had the good fortune to experience in the 
friendly and efficient co-operation of many good and able men— and of 
none which the friends of the Bible cause have reason more highly to 
value, than that of Robert Haldane, Esquire, to whose exertions in 
behalf of the great object which Dr. Thomson had at heart, it would 
be injustice not to advert. 



DR. THOMSON. 



XXXV 



injuries, or exaggerates petty slights into serious 
wrongs. Still the personal tone which the con- 
troversy assumed in the hands of persons who, in 
the absence of argument, had recourse to recrimi- 
nation and insult, combined with the sleepless 
nights and busy days which the part he had under- 
taken imposed on him, silently wore down the 
strength of his constitution, and prepared it for 
yielding to that blow, unexpected perhaps by all 
but himself, which put a perpetual period to his 
labours and anxieties. Nothing however, while 
life remained, was permitted to stand in the way 
of his exertions in behalf of his flock or of 
the cause of Christianity at large. While suf- 
fering from symptoms of the most depressing de- 
scription, he was always at his post, ready with his 
pen, or with the still more effective instrumentality 
of his living voice, to forward the interests of pure 
and undefiled religion. In a state of health, which, 
to most men, would have furnished an irresistible 
plea for seclusion from the excitement of public 
business, he paid a visit to London ; where, if he 
did little to place the ground of controversy be- 
tween the two societies of London and Edinburgh 
in its proper light, before the religious public of the 
metropolis, the failure is to be ascribed to some 
other cause than a deficiency of zeal, of exertion, 
or of eloquence on his part. Inconsiderable as was 
his success in the metropolis, he had at least the 
satisfaction of doing all that was in his power, to 
bring the cause of the integrity of divine truth to 



xxxvi 



MEMOIR OF 



an issue, in the quarter where it was most de- 
sirable that the question should be fairly heard and 
tried. 

It is but justice, however, to the opponents of 
the cause in which Dr. Thomson was embarked, 
to say, that while his labours, and those of his as- 
sociates in the cause of pure Bible circulation, failed 
of the grand object in view, they were not alto- 
gether destitute of success. While it is difficult to 
account for the conduct of the abettors of conjoint 
Bible and Apocryphal circulation, on any principle 
that will entirely save them from an imputation, 
unfavourable to the soundness of their moral per- 
ceptions, it is not to be forgotten, that the best of 
men are not exempt from serious frailties ; that in 
some minds there seems to be a sort of natural de- 
ficiency of moral tact, which nothing can entirely 
supply ; and that in others, a deficiency of the same 
sort is liable to be induced, by habits of deference 
to authority, or of judging of the morality of ac- 
tions by a reference to their consequences. On 
principles such as these, we are to account for the 
conduct of many of the official personages in- 
trusted with the management of the funds and 
operations of the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety ; and to explain their blindness to the serious 
error in point of principle, and the no less serious 
mischief in point of consequences, involved in their 
departure from the primary law of the institution ; 
and the pertinacity with which they still seem will- 
ing to adhere to their mistaken policy, in spite of 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxxvii 



the warnings and remonstrances which have been 
addressed to them. It cannot be doubted that, 
in the hearts of many even of those who seem 
resolute in error, the love of the Bible is really 
seated ; and to this cause we are willing to as- 
cribe the disposition, tardy and reluctant as it was, 
to compromise the question at issue between them 
and their antagonists in the north. And, though 
in such a case as that in which the honour and in- 
tegrity of the divine word are involved, anything 
short of a return to the principle, of giving no coun- 
tenance, direct or indirect, to a corruption of the 
sacred volume, must be regarded as less than the 
obligations of duty demand, still we are not to over- 
look any approximation to the principle, nor be un- 
willing to recognise in it the presage of better 
things in time to come, when the heats of excited 
feeling are allayed, and the lights of experience are 
brought to bear on a subject darkened by the con- 
tentions of rival opinions. To such an issue, des- 
pite of many discouraging appearances, we doubt 
not things are rapidly tending. It were to despair 
of the triumph of truth and righteousness, to im- 
agine that the controversy between the London and 
Edinburgh Societies could always remain as it is. 
Time alone is required to inform the public mind 
of the nature and importance of the objects at stake, 
in order to work a change on the feeling of the 
people of England with regard to it. We have but 
to look a little way into the future to see the clouds 
that at present hang over the part taken by the 



xxxviii 



MEMOIR OF 



several combatants cleared away ; the cause of di- 
vine truth vindicated ; the asperities produced in 
the course of the discussion forgiven and forgotten \ 
and some of the very men who have been most 
wedded to false principles, and a mistaken policy, 
hastening to repair their error, by doing justice to 
the characters of those by whom that error was 
first pointed out, and by returning to the broad 
highway of " simplicity and godly sincerity," from 
which it had been happy they had never departed. 
Till this desirable consummation arrive, the friends 
of the purity of the divine record must pursue their 
path alone, satisfied that while they keep the hon- 
our of the God of truth in view, they are following 
a pillar of fire and cloud, which cannot mislead, and 
will not forsake them.* 

* Since these lines were written, the British and Foreign Bible 
Society has held its annual meeting for 1831. And, however little the 
proceedings of that meeting may be calculated to encourage hopes 
founded on the good sense, or Christian feeling of the directors, they 
open a gratifying prospect in another quarter. A reaction in the 
public mind can scarcely fail to be the consequence of such glaring 
indiscretion, and such culpable indifference to all that is distinctive 
in Christian principle and Christian character, as are displayed by the 
resolutions finally agreed to at the meeting. Already, unequivocal symp- 
toms of this reaction have begun to appear ; in proof of which we 
need only refer to the proceedings of the last annual meeting of the 
London Naval and Military Bible Society, at which the resolution, 
negatived only the week before at the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, was carried by an overpowering majority. Will such a fact 
as this have no weight with the directors of the last mentioned So- 
ciety ; or, unwarned and untaught, will they pursue their headlong- 
career, till deserted by all the genuine friends of the Bible, and of the 
religion of the Bible, they find themselves alone, in melancholy fel- 
lowship with Arians, Socinians, and Freethinkers, the dregs and 
the refuse of nominal Christianity ? 



DR. THOMSON. 



xxxix 



The manner in which Dr. Thomson managed 
his share in this controversy must not be passed in 
silence. It was with all his heart and soul that he 
entered into the controversy : he brought all his 
powers to aid him in doing justice to it ; and for a 
time at least, his whole mind and time were ab- 
sorbed in it. In the object contended for, he be- 
held a principle at stake, which, as a Christian, a pro- 
testant, and a minister, he was bound to vindicate 
and maintain. It was not merely whether certain 
funds had been wisely or imprudently applied ; 
whether certain individuals, to whom the public had 
been taught to look up with confidence, had been 
faithful to their trust ; whether a less degree of 
good had been done, than the world, who heard of 
the operations of the society, had been led to ima- 
gine. Important as these considerations were, they 
were not the questions which especially struck his 
mind, in the discoveries which accident had made, of 
the proceedings of the directors and agents of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. In the con- 
duct of the society, as represented by these indivi- 
duals, he beheld the grand leading principles of mo- 
rality and religion placed in jeopardy. He saw the 
marked line of separation, which the Divine Being 
has drawn between his word and the imaginations of 
his fallible creatures, trodden down, and, so far as 
the operations of the society on the continent were 
concerned, in danger of being obliterated : He saw 
the broad seal of heaven wrested from the page on 
which it had been impressed by the finger of God, 



xl 



MEMOIR OF 



and placed unscrupulously, and without discrimina- 
tion, on lying legends and on " the true sayings of 
God," In all this, he beheld an object fitted to 
awaken all the energy of a mind trained to tremble 
at the Divine Word, to rouse into indignant and 
irrepressible feeling all the sensibilities of a soul 
that was " very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts." 

It is easy for those whom providence has destined 
to dull mediocrity by the constitutional slowness of 
their apprehensions, or the coldness of their feel- 
ings, to perceive, in the ardour with which Dr. 
Thomson prosecuted his task of exposing and re- 
buking what he regarded as criminal delinquency, 
something to censure : easy too for those who have 
never mingled in the strife of " earnest contending 
for the faith once delivered to the saints," but have 
satisfied themselves with looking on, from the se- 
clusion of their study, at the shock of arms, and the 
alternations of the battle, to be wise and charitable 
at the expense of the combatants : easier still for 
those, who have no sympathy in the object contend- 
ed for, to reprobate the zeal with which the struggle 
for it is maintained. But, if we would form a cor- 
rect estimate of the conduct of Dr. Thomson, in re- 
lation to the British and Foreign Bible Society, we 
must at once possess something of his character, and 
find ourselves placed nearly in his circumstances. 
The very features of his character as a controver- 
sialist, which may seem most to require softening, 
were connected with qualities for which his raemo- 



5 



DR. THOMSON. 



Xli 



ry deserves most to be honoured. If he assumed 
a decided attitude, and made use of strong language, 
it was not because he cared little for the feelings, or 
was reckless of the character of his antagonists, but 
because his zeal for the truth made him less alive 
than were the lukewarm and the timid, to the ef- 
fect his occasional warmth might have, on those 
with whom a sense of duty brought him into colli- 
sion. In a struggle, unusually protracted, and in 
which, on the side of the opposite party in some 
memorable instances, not the courtesies of debate 
merely, but the restraints of Christian feeling and 
ordinary decorum were violated, it is not to be 
wondered at that he should at times have caught 
the tone of his assailants — that he should occasion- 
ally have descended from the high ground of prin- 
ciple to occupy a position, in which, though he was 
not less formidable, he appeared personally to less 
advantage — that, in short, like Luther and Calvin, 
and others, his predecessors in the task of correct- 
ing great abuses, he should occasionally have been 
tempted to forget that " long forbearing" is some- 
times the surest parent of " persuasion," and that it 
is " a soft answer" which the wise man tells us 
" breaketh the bone." If more need be said on the 
subject, he himself has said it, # in terms that leave 
us only to regret the close alliance of great virtues 
with occasional errors, and which must satisfy even 

* See Dr, Thomson's speech at the extraordinary meeting of the 
Edinburgh Bible Society, on the 1st March 1830. 



xlii 



MEMOIR OF 



those who have least sympathy with the workings 
of such a nature as his, that insensibility to his im- 
perfections formed no feature of his character. 

During the course of the winter preceding that 
in which he died, he composed and preached a series 
of discourses in reference to certain errors prevalent 
at the time among many sincere, it is to be hoped, 
though mistaken Christians. These discourses are 
before the public ; and in them, and in the notes 
appended to them, such as feel an interest in the 
confutation of the errors in question, will find the 
kindred subjects of universal pardon, and of per- 
sonal assurance as essential to the nature of genuine 
faith, discussed with much eloquence and judg- 
ment ; while they who wish merely to obtain clear 
and scriptural views of the doctrine of the atone- 
ment, and of the nature and workings of Christian 
experience, will meet with much in the volume to 
reward a careful perusal. In many parts of it, the 
author, in addition to his usual acuteness in the 
discrimination of character, and power of addressing 
himself to the conscience and heart, displays an 
extent of theological knowledge, and a clearness 
of doctrinal statement, of which his preceding 
publications had not perhaps afforded such decided 
examples. His acquaintance with human nature, 
his dexterity in searching to the bottom of it for the 
remote springs of thought and action, and his happy 
faculty of disembarrassing perplexed and intricate 
subjects, and of imparting a practical interest to 

3 



DR. THOMSON. 



xliii 



topics which, in other hands, are apt to appear 
scholastic and uninviting, are also displayed to great 
advantage. 

The last great public effort of Dr. Thomson was in 
behalf of the slave population of our West India 
colonies. In a note to a sermon published in his 
volume of " Discourses on various Subjects," he 
had taken up the question of the remedial measures 
proposed in behalf of that oppressed class of our 
fellow-subjects, and, with his characteristic frank- 
ness, declared himself an advocate for immediate 
emancipation. The opinion he thus expressed was 
not the result of sudden impulse, but of a deliberate 
and well weighed consideration of the subject of 
compulsory servitude in all its bearings. On the 
one hand, he looked to the principles of morality 
and of the Scriptures ; and from them he learned 
that to hold a fellow-creature in bondage is directly 
to violate the rule which dictates the same treat- 
ment of our neighbour as we ourselves have a right 
to expect from him. And to the mind of Dr. 
Thomson it appeared no less a crime to assume a 
right of property in man under the tropics, than it 
would be to transfer that claim to the mother coun- 
try, and to extend it over those who go out and 
come in among ourselves. 

And, if in this conclusion at which, in common 
with all disinterested persons, he had arrived, he 
was fortified by an appeal to the first principles of 
justice and humanity, his convictions acquired ad- 
ditional strength when he adverted to the evils 

e 



xliv 



MEMOIR OF 



which the system of slavery entails upon those by 
whom it is upheld, no less than upon those whose 
comfort and improvement it more immediately 
affects. For some time past, the public has been 
familiar with the complaints of the planters, that 
their property has fallen in value ; and the least 
consideration of the subject is sufficient to convince 
every reasonable mind, that the cause is to be 
sought, not in accidental circumstances, but in the 
system of slavery itself. According to the West 
India proprietors, nothing can save their property 
and restore it to its former value, but a return to 
the system of absolute noninterference on the part 
of this country with their treatment of their slaves, 
or perhaps, as the language of one of their recent 
manifestoes would seem to intimate, a renewal of the 
traffic in slaves. But for this Great Britain obviously 
is not prepared. And if not, are things then to con- 
tinue as they are ? Can the planter desire it ? or 
will the slave long permit it ? Colonial produce 
is at present depreciated ; the colonies themselves 
are not what they were in point of productiveness ; 
a spirit of insubordination and misrule is prevalent 
among the negroes : the slave eyes his master with 
the feeling of a foe, and goes through his work 
with the languor and reluctance characteristic of a 
state, in which the impulse of gratitude and the 
stimulus of hope are unknown. Some remedy for 
such a state of things must be sought and found. 
And Dr. Thomson, and those who think with him 
on this important subject, conceive that such a 



DR. THOMSON. 



xlv 



remedy presents itself in the abolition of slavery it- 
self. The efficacy of the remedy they conceive to be 
founded in the immutable principles of human na- 
ture. Nor, in the conclusion to which they come 
with regard to it, do they rely on mere abstract and 
general principles. In the history of all states that 
have arrived at real and permanent greatness, they 
think they can trace a connexion, between the 
diffusion of freedom and the growth of national 
prosperity ; and, in following the unwavering light 
of experience, they conceive that they are propos- 
ing neither an uncertain nor a hazardous experi- 
ment — depriving the planter of nothing really 
valuable in his property, but placing that property 
upon a firm and stable foundation, by removing 
the causes which are silently sapping and under- 
mining it. 

With the friends of humanity and religion, and 
it may be added, of true policy, Dr. Thomson was 
so far cordially united. The only point on which his 
views differed from those of any of this class, related 
to the time at which the grand measure of abolition 
should be carried into effect. It has been already 
observed that he declared for immediate steps with 
a view to this object. And to this conclusion he 
came, not only as a legitimate deduction from the 
general principles already adverted to, but as a 
consequence of his observation of the conduct of 
some of those persons who, while they acknowledged 
his principles, found pretexts for evading the prac- 
tical results to which these naturally conducted. 



xlvi 



MEMOIR OF 



For years the evils of a state of slavery had been 
denounced ; and, such was the notoriety of the 
facts, that they could not be denied. Parliament, 
reluctantly perhaps, but, governed by the voice of 
the nation, decidedly had expressed its desire that 
an immediate period should be put to the more 
glaring- of these evils, and had even gone the length 
of recommending a course of ameliorating measures, 
with a view to the ultimate extinction of the state 
of society which gave them birth.* Yet years had 
passed, and nothing comparatively had been done. 
In some quarters the recommendation of govern- 
ment had been met on the part of the planters and 
the colonial legislatures, by a decided expression 
of contempt, accompanied by a declaration of their 
irresponsible right of property in their slaves. And 
in those islands where something like a show of 
deference and compliance was exhibited, facts were 
daily developing themselves, which proved that it was 
vain to hope for the accomplishment of any great de- 
sign of benevolence, through the instrumentality of 
men who avowed their interest, in perpetuating that 
order of things which it was the object of bene- 
volence to bring to an end. Under these cir- 
cumstances, and with these facts before him, Dr. 
Thomson conceived that it was mere loss of time, 
any longer to entrust the measure of abolition to 
persons, whose prejudices were in direct hostility to 

* See Mr. Canning's resolutions in 1823, on which the colonies 
have been called to act, with a few exceptions, in vain, 



DR. THOMSON. 



xlvii 



the views of parliament and of the country. When, 
therefore, the directors of the Edinburgh anti-sla- 
very society proposed to hold a meeting in Octo- 
ber last, and some of them requested Dr. Thomson 
to attend and address the friends of the institution, 
he declared his determination, if he attended, to 
bring forward his own particular views, and to de- 
precate all half-measures, which he foresaw would 
be productive of no good. On the day of the meet- 
ing, accordingly, Dr. Thomson was present in the 
assembly room ; and after Mr. Jeffrey, the present 
Lord Advocate, and some other speakers had ad- 
dressed the meeting, he craved permission to state 
the conclusions at which he had arrived. With a 
power of argument, and an earnestness and eleva- 
tion of tone which can never be forgotten, he en- 
tered on the subject ; and, in a brief speech, ex- 
plained the points in which he differed from the 
former speakers, as well as those in which he agreed 
with them. Never was the triumph of truth and 
eloquence more complete. Before he had con- 
cluded, the majority of the meeting was with him : 
the confidence of the directors of the society in the 
measures they had come forward to recommend 
was shaken ; and in the rapturous acclamations of 
a crowded assembly, he had the satisfaction of list- 
ening to the first echo, which Great Britain through 
all her provinces is yet destined to send back, to the 
call of justice and religion, in behalf of the injured 
children of her colonies. 

Subsequently to these proceedings, a meeting 



xlviii 



MEMOIR OF 



took place of the friends of immediate abolition, at 
which Dr. Thomson attended, supported by the 
directors of the anti-slavery society, who, with a 
few exceptions, had obeyed the general impulse, 
and entered cordially into his enlarged and energe- 
tic views. His appearance on this occasion has 
been described by a writer of the day, as " a most 
splendid and varied display of wit, argument, and 
impressive eloquence." The moral dignity of the 
subject seemed to have imparted its character to 
the man and to his eloquence. Never perhaps did 
he appear more truly great. 

In the course of his address he took an op- 
portunity of more fully developing his views 
on the important question of immediate eman- 
cipation. To many, the word immediate has 
proved a formidable stumbling block, suggesting 
the idea of a sudden dissolution of all the bonds 
by which society in the colonies is held toge- 
ther. To such persons it might seem necessary 
only to say, that freedom in this country is attended 
by no such unhappy results ; and that which expe- 
rience proves to be no evil in this country, need 
not, unless through culpable mismanagement, be 
an evil elsewhere. The truth is, while an imme- 
diate declaration of freedom in behalf of the slave 
population of the colonies is demanded by every 
principle of justice, humanity, religion, and sound 
political wisdom, it is the duty of those, whose pro- 
vince it is to make the declaration, to accompany it 
by such precautionary provisions as shall strip it of 



DR. THOMSON. 



xlix 



its tendency to produce confusion and misrule, and 
as shall thoroughly meet the peculiar exigencies of 
a new state of society. The thing wanted, in order 
to the safe accomplishment of the object of the 
friends of immediate emancipation, is not means, 
but inclination. Whenever the latter shall exist in 
the proper quarter, in a degree to outweigh the 
suggestions of interest or indifference, methods will 
easily be discovered of adjusting the claims, and al- 
laying the fears of the planter on the one hand ; 
and, on the other, of introducing the slave, without 
risk or inconvenience, to the enjoyment of the 
blessings of free and civilized society. 

Meanwhile, it is for the friends of the planters, 
and of their oppressed dependents, to persevere in 
their endeavours to bring about the termination of 
a state of things not less unnatural, than it is full of 
hazard to property and life. Nothing but the time- 
ly adoption of decided measures in behalf of our 
slave population can arrest the crisis, to which in- 
justice on the one side, and unmerited wrongs on 
the other but too surely tend. In vain is it for the 
advocates of slavery to imagine that their unright- 
eous reign will always be permitted to last. Al- 
ready there are symptoms in the colonies of the 
awaking of that mighty spirit, whose voice none 
can hear and be a slave — the spirit which gained 
for Britons, under a less genial sky, the blessings 
of freedom, of civilization, and of religion, of equal 
laws and liberal institutions. Chain down that spi- 
rit, and its hour of triumph may be delayed, and its 



1 



MEMOIR OF 



vigour may for a time waste itself in silent aspira- 
tions, or in ineffectual struggles : But it will not 
expire. Dark passions will spring from its wrongs, 
and grow up by its side : Envy, hate, a festering 
sense of undeserved injury, prompting to revenge, 
together with despair of attaining by lawful means 
its end, will goad it on to some lawless, reckless, 
desperate act of wide-spread rebellion, in which the 
planter and his property will perish together, and 
the bond between the colonies and the mother- 
country will be snapt as by the convulsive force of 
an earthquake. 

" Long' trains of ill may pass unheeded, dumb : 
But vengeance is behind, and justice is to come." 

To arrest the progress of the colonies to a consum- 
mation so terrible, though perhaps, when we re- 
vert to their history, not inappropriate, — as well 
as to vindicate the eternal principles of right and 
humanity, are the objects of the friends of immedi- 
ate emancipation. And happy will it be, if the suc- 
cess of their endeavours be permitted to anticipate 
and supersede the lessons of dreadful experience. 

Up to the period of his death, Dr. Thomson oc- 
cupied much of his time in promoting this object, 
so dear to the friends of freedom and humanity. 
He may almost be said to have expired while plead- 
ing its cause ; a worthy termination to the labours 
of a life, of which love to God, issuing in love to 
man, had been the governing principle. 



DR. THOMSON. 



li 



For some time before his death, his mind, it is 
believed, experienced something of a presenti- 
ment of the approaching event, which may have 
been vouchsafed in love, to perfect his preparation 
for his sudden change. More than once, when 
urged by the members of his own family to relieve 
himself of some portion of the burden of affairs 
which pressed so heavily on him, he replied with 
affectionate solemnity, " I must work the work of 
Him that sent me while it is day ; the night cometh 
when no man can work." The increasing earnest- 
ness, richness, and variety of his prayers, both in 
private and in public, are also circumstances that 
struck many, and none more than the writer of 
these pages. 

On the 9th of February 1831, the day on which 
he died, he appeared to his family in his usual 
health. As was his custom, he rose and breakfast- 
ed at an early hour. During the devotions of the 
family, which he conducted as usual, he read the 
last three psalms, and he concluded the service by 
a prayer remarked at the time for its spirituality and 
fervour. After baptizing a child, he left his house to 
pay some visits to the sick ; and at a later hour he ap- 
peared in his place at a meeting of the presbytery of 
Edinburgh, specially convened for the purpose of 
ordaining a minister to one of our West India settle- 
ments. During his attendance at the presbytery, 
he displayed his usual interest, and took his usual 
share in the business of the court. At the close 
of the meeting, about five in the afternoon, he pro- 



in 



MEMOIR OF 



ceeded homeward ; and with a friend, who met 
him by the way, he conversed with animation and 
cheerfulness tiil he reached his own door, on the 
threshold of which, without a struggle or a groan, 
he suddenly fell, overtaken by that summons which 
recalls the " good servant" from his labour to his 
reward. 

In a stroke so sudden, so unexpected, and in all 
its circumstances so well calculated to produce a 
strong sensation, the public of Edinburgh, and it 
may be added, of Scotland, testified the liveliest in- 
terest. Many mourned the loss of a friend, a coun- 
sellor, a brother in adversity, a spiritual father. 
His congregation felt that they had experienced an 
irreparable bereavement. The church of Scotland 
lamented the removal of one of its strongest pillars 
and most distinguished ornaments. And the friends 
of religion in general beheld in his death an event, 
to the consequences of which they could not advert 
without deep anxiety. The feelings of party were 
merged in the general grief ; and they who had 
known him while living, chiefly as a formidable an- 
tagonist, hastened to accord to his memory the tri- 
bute of that affectionate regret, which is usually re- 
served for tried and valued friends ; a fact honour- 
able at once to the departed, and to those by whom 
the tribute was paid. 

Dr. Thomson is interred in a piece of ground 
connected with St. Cuthbert's church-yard, divided 
only by a wall from the spot where lie the remains 
of his venerable friend and father in the church, Sir 



DR. THOMSON. 



liii 



Henry Moncrieff. His funeral was attended by 
ministers from all parts of the country, by the stu- 
dents of the divinity classes, who specially re- 
quested permission to attend, by the members of 
his own congregation, and by the better description 
of persons of all pursuits and denominations in 
Edinburgh ; while throngs of spectators lined the 
streets through which the procession passed, testi- 
fying by unequivocal signs how sincerely they par- 
took of the feelings of the mourners. 

On the following Sabbath (February 20th) a fu- 
neral sermon was preached in St. George's church, 
in the forenoon, by the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, from 
Hebrews xi. 4. ; and another in the afternoon, by 
the Rev. Dr. Dickson of St. Cuthbert's, from Psalm 
cxii. 6. 

Among the many attempts to delineate the cha- 
racter of Dr. Thomson, the following, from the pen 
of one* who knew him well, and whose habits pe- 
culiarly qualify him to do justice to such an effort 
of friendship, deserves particularly to be preserved. 
It is inserted in this place as a suitable close to a 
necessarily imperfect sketch of some of the leading 
events of Dr. Thomson's life. 

" During the excitement caused by the sudden 
death of a public man, cut down in the prime of 
life, and in the midst of a career of extensive use- 
fulness, it is easy to pronounce a panegyric, but 
difficult to delineate a character which shall be free 

* Dr. M'Crie, the historian of Knox and of the Reformation. 

3 



liv 



MEMOIR OF 



from the exaggeration of existing feeling, and re- 
commend itself to the unbiassed judgment of cool 
reflection. Rarely has such a deep sensation been 
produced as by the recent removal of Dr. Thom- 
son ; but in few instances, we are persuaded, has 
there been less reason, on the ground of temporary 
excitation, for making abatements from the re- 
gret and lamentation so loudly and unequivocally 
expressed. He was so well known, his character 
and talents were so strongly marked, and they were 
so much of that description which all classes of 
men can appreciate, that the circumstances of his 
death did not create the interest, but only gave ex- 
pression to that which already existed in the public 
mind. 

" Those who saw Dr. Thomson once, knew him ; 
intimacy gave them a deeper insight into his cha- 
racter, but furnished no grounds for altering the 
opinion which they had at first been led to form. 
Simplicity— which is an essential element in all 
minds of superior mould — marked his appearance, 
his reasoning, his eloquence, and his whole con- 
duct. All that he said or did was direct, straight- 
forward, and unaffected ; there was no labouring 
for effect, no paltering in a double sense. His ta- 
lents were such as would have raised him to emi- 
nence in any profession or public walk of life which 
he might have chosen — a vigorous understanding, 
an active and ardent mind, with powers of close 
and persevering application. He made himself 
master in a short time of any subject to which he 



DR. THOMSON. 



Iv 



found it necessary to direct his attention, had all his 
knowledge at perfect command, expressed himself 
with the utmost perspicuity, ease, and energy, and 
when roused by the greatness of his subject, or by 
the nature of the opposition which he encountered, 
his bold and masterly eloquence produced an effect, 
especially on a popular assembly, far beyond that 
which depends on the sallies of imagination, or the 
dazzling brilliancy of fancy-work. Nor was he less 
distinguished for his moral qualities, among which 
shone conspicuously an honest, firm, unflinching, 
fearless independence of mind, which prompted 
him uniformly to adopt and pursue that course 
which his conscience told him was right, indifferent 
to personal consequences, and regardless of the 
frowns and threats of the powerful. 

" Besides the instructions of his worthy father, it 
was Dr. Thomson's felicity to enjoy the intimate 
friendship of the venerable Sir Henry MoncriefF, 
who early discovered his rising talents, and freely 
imparted to him the stores of his own vigorous and 
matured mind, and of an experience acquired dur- 
ing the long period in which he had taken a lead- 
ing part in the counsels of the national church. 
Though Dr. Thomson was known as a popular and 
able preacher from the time he first entered on the mi- 
nistry, the powers of his mindwere not fully called forth 
and developed until his appointment to St. George's. 
He entered on this charge with a deep sense of the 
importance of the station, as one of the largest parish- 
es of the metropolis, containing a population of the 
most highly educated class of society, and not with- 



lvi 



MEMOIR OF 



out the knowledge that there was in the minds of 
a part of those among whom he was called to la- 
bour, a prepossession against the peculiar doctrines 
which had always held a prominent place in his 
public ministrations. But he had not long occu- 
pied that pulpit, when, in spite of the delicate 
situation in which he was placed by more than one 
public event, which obliged him to give a practical 
testimony (displeasing to many in high places) in 
favour of the purity of presbyterian worship, and 
the independence of the Church of Scotland, he 
disappointed those who had forboded his ill success, 
and exceeded the expectations of such of his friends 
as had the greatest confidence in his talents. By 
the ability and eloquence of his discourses, by the 
assiduity and prudence of his more private minis- 
trations, and by the affectionate solicitude which he 
evinced for the spiritual interests of those commit- 
ted to his care, he not only dissipated every unfa- 
vourable impression, but seated himself so firmly in 
the hearts of his people, that, long before his lament- 
ed death, no clergyman in this city, established or 
dissenting, was more cordially revered and beloved 
by his congregation. Nothing endeared him to 
them so much and so deservedly as the attention he 
paid to the young and the sick ; and of the happy 
art which he possessed of communicating instruc- 
tion to the former, and administering advice and 
consolation to the latter, there are many pleasing 
and, it is to be hoped, lasting memorials. 

" Dr. Thomson was decidedly evangelical in his 
doctrinal sentiments, which he did not disguise or 



DR. THOMSON. 



Ivii 



hold back in his public discourses ; but he was a 
practical preacher, and instead of indulging- in ab- 
struse speculations or philosophical disquisition, 
made it his grand aim to impress the truths of the 
gospel on the hearts of his hearers. Attached to the 
Church of Scotland from principle, not from conve- 
nience or accident, he made no pretensions to that 
indiscriminating and spurious liberality which puts 
all forms of ecclesiastical polity and communion on a 
level ; but in his sentiments and feelings he was 
liberal in the truest sense of the word ; could dis- 
tinguish between a spirit of sectarianism and con- 
scientious secession ; never assumed the airs of a 
churchman in his intercourse with dissenters, co- 
operated with them in every good work, and che- 
rished a respect for all faithful ministers, which was 
founded not only on the principles of toleration and 
good will, but on the conviction that their labours 
were useful in supplying that lack of service on the 
part of his own church, and of counteracting those 
abuses in her administration, which he never scru- 
pled on any proper occasion to confess and de- 
plore. 

" It is well known that Dr. Thomson belonged 
to that party in the Church of Scotland, which has 
defended the rights of the people in opposition to 
the rigorous enforcement of the law of patronage ; 
and in advocating this cause in the Church Courts, 
he has, for many years, displayed his unrivalled ta- 
lents as a public speaker, sustained by an intrepidity 
which was unawed by power, and a fortitude which 
was proof against overwhelming majorities. Of 



Iviii 



MEMOIR OF 



late years he has devoted a great portion of his la- 
bours to the defence of the pure circulation of the 
Scriptures, and the emancipation of the degraded 
negroes in the West Indies ; and, in both causes, 
he has displayed his characteristic ability, zeal for 
truth, and uncompromising and indignant reproba- 
tion of every species of dishonesty, injustice, and 
oppression. His exertions in behalf of the doc- 
trines and standards of the church, against some re- 
cent heresies and delusions, afford an additional 
proof, not only of his unwearied zeal in behalf of 
that sacred cause to which he devoted all his ener- 
gies, but of his readiness, at all times, to " contend 
earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to 
the saints. 5 ' 

" Great as Dr. Thomson's popularity was (and 
few men in his sphere of life ever rose so high in 
popular favour), he was not exposed to the woe de- 
nounced against those " of whom all men speak 
well." He had his detractors and enemies, who 
waited for his halting, and were prepared to mag- 
nify and blazon his faults. Of him it may be said, 
as of another Christian patriot, no man ever loved 
or hated him moderately. This was the inevitable 
consequence of his great talents, and the rough 
contests in which he was involved. His generous 
spirit raised him above the indulgence of envy and 
every jealous feeling, but it made him less tolerant 
of those who displayed these mean vices. When 
convinced of the justice of a cause, and satisfied of 
its magnitude, he threw his whole soul into it, 
summoned all his powers to its defence, and assail- 



DR. THOMSON. llX 

ed its adversaries, not only with strong arguments, 
but with sharp, pointed, and poignant sarcasm ; but 
unless he perceived insincerity, malignity, or per- 
verseness, his own feelings were too acute and too 
just to permit him gratuitously to wound those of 
others. That his zeal was always reined by pru- 
dence ; that his ardour of mind never hurried him 
to a precipitate conclusion, or led him to magnify 
the subject in debate ; that his mind was never 
warped by party feeling ; and that he never indulg- 
ed the love of victory, or sought to humble a teaz- 
ing or pragmatic adversary, are positions which his 
true friends will not maintain. But his ablest op- 
ponents will admit, that in all the great questions 
in which he distinguished himself, he acted consci- 
entiously ; that he was an open, manly, and ho- 
nourable adversary ; and that, though he was some* 
times intemperate, he was never disingenuous. Dr. 
Thomson was by constitution a reformer ; he felt 
a strong sympathy with those great men who, in a 
former age, won renown, by assailing the hydra of 
error, and of civil 'and religious tyranny ; and his 
character partook of theirs. In particular, he bore 
no inconsiderable resemblance to Luther, both in 
excellencies and defects — his leonine nobleness and 
potency, his masculine eloquence, his facetiousness 
and pleasantry, the fondness which he showed for 
the fascinating charms of music, and the irritability 
and vehemence which he occasionally exhibited, to 
which some will add the necessity which this im- 
posed on him to make retractions, which, while 
they threw a partial shade over his fame, taught his 

/ 



Ix 



MEMOIR OF 



admirers tlie needful lesson, that lie was a man sub- 
ject to like passions and infirmities with others. But 
the fact is, though hitherto known to few, and the 
time is now come for revealing' it, that some of those 
effusions which were most objectionable, and ex- 
posed him to the greatest obloquy, were neither 
composed by Dr. Thomson, nor seen by him, until 
they were published to the world ; and that in one 
instance, which has given rise to the most unspar- 
ing abuse, he paid the expenses of a prosecution, and 
submitted to make a public apology, for an offence 
of which he was innocent as the child unborn, rather 
than give up the name of the friend who was mo- 
rally responsible for the deed ; — an example of ge- 
nerous self-devotion which has few parallels. 

" To his other talents, Dr. Thomson added a sin- 
gular capacity for business, which not only quali- 
fied him for taking an active part in the Church 
Courts, but rendered him highly useful to those 
public charities of which the clergy of Edinburgh 
are officially managers, and to the different volun- 
tary societies with which he was connected. This 
caused unceasing demands on his time and exer- 
tions, which, joined to his other labours, were suf- 
ficient to wear out the most robust constitution, and 
he at last sunk under their weight. 

" In private life, Dr. Thomson was every thing 
that is amiable and engaging. He was mild, and 
gentle, and cheerful ; — deeply tender and acutely 
sensitive in his strongest affections ; most faithful 
and true in his attachments of friendship— kind- 
hearted and indulgent to all with whom he had inter- 



DR. THOMSON. 



Ixi 



course. His firm adherence to principle, when he 
thought principle involved, whatever appearance of 
severity it may have presented to those who saw 
him only as a public character, had no taint of 
harshness in his private life ; and unbending as he 
certainly was in principle, he never failed to re- 
ceive with kindness what was addressed to his rea- 
son in the spirit of friendship. It may indeed be 
said with truth, that, great as were his public me- 
rits, and deplorable the public loss in his death, yet 
to those who had the happiness to live with him in 
habits of intimacy, the deepest and the bitterest 
feeling still is, the separation from a man who pos- 
sessed so many of the finest and most amiable sen- 
sibilities of the human heart. It was around his 
own family hearth, and in the circle of his intimate 
acquaintances, that Dr, Thomson was peculiarly 
delightful. In him the lion and the lamb may be 
said to have met together. It was equally natural 
in him to play with a child, and to enter the lists 
with a practised polemic. He could be gay with- 
out levity, and grave without moroseness. His 
frank and bland manners, the equable flow of his 
cheerfulness and good humour, and the information 
which he possessed on almost every subject, made 
his company to be courted by persons of all classes. 
He could mix with men of the world without com- 
promising his principles, or lowering his character 
as a minister of the gospel ; and his presence was 
enough to repress any thing which had the sem- 
blance of irreligion. 

V The loss of such a man, and at such a time, is 



Ixii 



MEMOIR, &C. 



incalculable. His example and spirit had a whole- 
some and refreshing-, an exhilarating and elevating 
influence, on the society in which he moved ; and 
even the agitation which he produced when he was 
in his stormy moods, was salutary, — like the hurri- 
cane, (his own favourite image, and the last which 
he employed in public,) purifying the moral atmos- 
phere, and freeing it from the selfishness, and du- 
plicity, and time-serving, with which it was over- 
charged." 



The following is a list of Dr. Thomson's publica- 
tions. 

Catechism on the Nature and Uses of the Lord's 
Supper, 18mo. — Address to Christian Parents on the 
Religious Education of their Children, 18mo. — The 
Young Warned against the Enticement of Sinners, 
18mo. — Lectures on Select Portions of Scripture, 
12mo. — The Sin and Danger of being " Lovers of 
Pleasure more than Lovers of God," 18mo. — Ser- 
mons on Infidelity, post 8vo.— Catechism for Young 
Persons, 18mo. — Sermons on Hearing the Word 
Preached, 18mo. — Lectures on Select Portions of 
the Psalms, post 8vo. — Sermons on Various Subjects, 
8vo. — Sermons on the Doctrine of Universal Par- 
don, 12 mo. — Besides occasional Sermons, Pamph- 
lets, and School-Books ; and his contributions to the 
Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, the Religious Monitor, 

and the Christian Instructor. 

2 



SERMONS. 



SERMON I* 
SALVATION BY GRACE, 
EPHESIANS ii. 8. 
For by grace are ye saved, through faith. 

If there be one truth more distinctly stated than 
another in the Bible, it is the truth contained in our 
text — that salvation flows entirely from divine 
grace, without any merit on the part of the sinner 
to deserve it, and without any ability on his part to 
accomplish it. This truth is interwoven with every 
part of the gospel scheme. It stands forth as a 
leading declaration in the gospel record, — and it is 
that which gives to the gospel, as a message from 
God to our fallen race, all its meaning and con- 
sistency, all its value and all its effect. 

* Preached at the introduction of the Rev. John W. Thomson, to 
the church and parish of Monedie, 10th August 1828. 

B 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



It is a truth, indeed, which does not find a ready 
access into the human mind ; and even when it is 
received, that reception is not always so cordial and 
unreserved as it might be expected to be. We are 
unwilling to have our lofty imaginations brought 
down, to confess our ignorance, our unworthiness, 
our insufficiency, — to accede to a plan which pro- 
ceeds upon the mortifying supposition, that we can 
do nothing 1 efficiently for ourselves, and must have 
every thing done for us by the aid and intervention 
of another. We have pride of understanding', and 
think ourselves competent to the formation of a 
scheme, which might at least contribute to our sal- 
vation, if it could not altogether effectuate that ob- 
ject. We have pride of heart, and will not ac- 
knowledge that moral depravity and guilt which at 
once render salvation necessary, and incapacitate 
us for working it out by our own ability. In short, 
we cannot bear to believe that, amidst all our fan- 
cied attainments and all our seeming excellencies, 
there is nothing truly deserving in us, — to lie down, 
under a sense of our utter nothingness, in the dust 
of deep and unfeigned humility, and to be indebted 
to foreign aid exclusively, for all our blessings and 
for all our hopes. And yet, not only must this 
high-mindedness be subdued, in order that we may 
be saved, but there is not a position more suscepti- 
ble of proof than this,— that our salvation is wholly 
of grace. Men may reject it, from indifference to all 
the subjects to which it relates. They may treat it 
with ridicule and scorn, from misunderstanding its 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



3 



import, or from wantonness of disposition. Or they 
may deny it, by appealing to principles and modes 
of reasoning* which acknowledge not the authority 
of revelation. But it will be found to commend 
itself at once to our judgment, our belief, and our 
submission, if we will only consent to take our views 
from that sacred volume, which alone assures us 
that there is salvation, — which tells us in what it 
consists, — which urges us to seek it, and which pro- 
mises that, seeking it as it is offered to us, it will cer- 
tainly become ours. 

It is to the illustration of this truth that we mean 
at present to direct your attention. 

Now what is the representation which the Scrip- 
tures give us of our spiritual condition ? They de- 
clare that man is guilty. But do they ever in- 
sinuate that he has wherewithal to atone for his 
guilt, or that he can do any thing to establish a 
claim to the pardon and absolution that he needs ? 
They assert that he is ignorant. But do they 
assert, that by any exertion of his intellectual fa- 
culties, he can discover the way of reconciliation 
and eternal life ? They hold him out as in a state 
of inherent corruption. But is it their doctrine 
that he has also inherent power to change his heart, 
and to become the partaker of a divine nature ? They 
represent him as led captive by Satan at his will. 
But do they, anywhere, ascribe to him either the 
wisdom or the energy, that is requisite to baffle and 
overcome this arch-enemy of his soul ? They de- 



4< 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



scribe him as exposed to numerous difficulties and 
temptations. But do they give him the least en- 
couragement to think that, if left to himself, he 
could succeed in struggling through the one, or in 
resisting the other ? No, indeed, my friends, you 
ca i not have read the Scriptures, however super- 
ficially, without perceiving, that ail these questions 
must be answered in the negative. The Scrip- 
tures, indeed, give a most melancholy and affecting 
picture of man's fallen condition, but the most me- 
lancholy and affecting part of it is, that he cannot 
by any efforts of his own deliver himself from the 
ruin in which he is involved, — that in this view his 
wisdom is but folly, his strength weakness, his 
righteousness filthy rags, and that, if no interposi- 
tion had taken place in his behalf, he must have in- 
evitably and for ever perished. Accordingly, we 
are told that " Christ came to seek and to save that 
which was lost. 5 ' As sinners we were " far off, hav- 
ing no hope and without God in the world." And 
we were "without strength, when Christ died for the 
ungodly." These, and various other passages of ho- 
ly writ, demonstrate, that man as a sinner, if aban- 
doned to his own resources, is utterly helpless and 
undone. And while they explicitly state his total 
inability to save himself, they as explicitly ascribe 
his salvation to the grace of God, and to no 
other source. " God so loved the world as to give 
his only begotten Son that we might live through 
him." " Ye are justified freely by the grace of God." 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



5 



" Not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his mercy hath he saved us." 
" Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal 
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." " By grace are ye 
saved." And, besides a multitude of Scriptures to 
the same effect, we see from the whole strain and 
constitution of the gospel, that it is a scheme of 
mercy free and undeserved, for the benefit of crea- 
tures who have both forfeited all title to the divine 
favour, and are wholly destitute of the means of 
regaining it, and that the tidings which it brings 
are good tidings, which neither would nor could 
have proceeded from any other source than the 
compassion of him, who though a just God is 
yet a Saviour, and who, in the character of a Sa- 
viour, is rich in mercy and plenteous in redemp- 
tion. 

But while it is the grace of God which has thus 
brought salvation to the world at all, it is the grace 
of God also which has brought salvation to us, 
proclaimed it to us, and placed it within our reach. 
There are multitudes of our fellow-creatures who 
have never heard of a Saviour — who are still ig- 
norant of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom 
he has sent — who are living in all the abominations 
of pagan idolatry, aliens from the commonwealth 
of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise. 
But it is not so with us. Unto us the word of 
salvation has been sent ; upon our dwellings the 
light of divine revelation has been made to shine ; 
into our hands has been put the record which God 



6 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



has given of his Son whom he has sent to save sin- 
ners ; and there have been distinctly unfolded to 
our view the way of eternal life, and the means by 
which we may be enabled to walk in it. Now, 
what is it that has thus made us to differ ? what is 
it that has secured for us that superiority, in point 
of external privilege, which we enjoy over the 
myriads of human beings who dwell in the dark 
places of the earth ? Were we possessed of any pre- 
vious claims to the favour of the Almighty, which 
would have made it injustice to leave us in a state 
of spiritual darkness, and hopeless degeneracy? Was 
it possible for us to have done any thing to merit 
such a high distinction as that to which we have 
been raised by the knowledge of Christianity ? Or 
shall we attribute it to mere chance, which equally 
excludes the interposition of God and the desert of 
man ? No, my friends, in none of these things do 
we find an adequate cause, for that distinguishing 
privilege which we enjoy, in consequence of having 
the dispensation of the gospel communicated to us. 
We are to seek for it in the sovereign grace of him, 
in whom the plan of human salvation originated, 
and who alone could, subsequently, determine to 
whom it should be made known, and from whom 
it should be withheld. W e cannot tell why it has 
been kept back from such a large proportion of our 
race. The reason has not been revealed to us ; 
and we have no means of discovering it. Perhaps 
in this, as in many other cases, it becomes us to look 
up to God and say, " Even so Father, for so it 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



7 



seemeth good in thy sight." But whatever explan- 
ation may be given or conjectured, it is obvious 
that, so far as we are concerned, it is the divine fa- 
vour, neither deserved nor solicited by us, that has 
blessed our lot with the light and mercy of the 
gospel. 

And it is to be observed, still more particularly, 
that it is by the operation of divine grace, that the 
salvation of the gospel is brought to us individually 
and effectually. We are all permitted to hear its 
joyful sound ; but it is a mournful fact that we do 
not all listen to it, and do not all obey it. Among 
the multitude to whom its message is conveyed, 
there are some only who give a cordial welcome to 
it, and embrace the deliverance which it offers, and 
comply with the terms which it prescribes. This 
is a matter of undeniable fact : but it is no less 
true, that if we be among the number, we must 
ascribe our happy situation to the influences of that 
grace without which we can do nothing. Looking 
to the powers of the understanding, and the dispo- 
sitions of the heart, and the circumstances of the 
outward condition, as these are delineated in Scrip- 
ture, and experienced in the case of the natural man, 
we may well ask, " Can these dry bones live ?" 
And the only answer that can be given, is, that they 
cannot live, unless the Spirit of God breathe upon 
them. In our personal character there is neither 
power to effectuate, nor merit to procure, that re- 
demption from sin, that restoration to the hope of 
heaven, and that change in the moral constitution 



8 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



of our nature, which are denied to those of our fel- 
low creatures who are around us and among us — 
living in the same neighbourhood, associating under 
the same roof, and receiving the same instruction. 
We must search somewhere else for the cause of 
such a peculiar phenomenon. And it is the doc- 
trine of Scripture, that it is God himself who begins 
the good work in us, and carries it on, and brings 
it ultimately to perfection. This is effected, indeed, 
in a manner corresponding with the rational nature 
which he has given us. Our understanding is con- 
vinced by sufficient reasons ; and our will is moved 
by suitable motives ; and we act upon principles 
and exercise affections which have the full appro- 
bation and concurrence of our own minds. But 
still the necessities of our spiritual condition re- 
quire, end the scheme of the gospel has provided, 
that the whole should be under the awakening, 
guiding, constraining, over-ruling influence of di- 
vine grace. It is grace which — whatever be the 
instrument or medium employed — first brings us 
from darkness into light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God — which enlightens us, and renews 
us, and makes us a peculiar and an obedient people. 
If we have faith to embrace the Saviour, this faith 
is wrought in us, and is the gift of God. If we 
have repented, that our sins may be blotted out, 
this repentance is given to us, as well as the remis- 
sion with which it is accompanied. If we are 
taught to love God, this love is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost. In short, 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



9 



if there be any thing good in our spiritual frame, 
and if there be any thing valuable in our Christian 
experience — if any change has been effected in our 
character or our condition as accountable beings — 
if we are living in any measure as the children of 
God, cultivating their temper, and enjoying their pri- 
vileges — and if we can appropriate to ourselves any 
of the promises of the gospel, or any of the blessings 
of salvation, the sentiment which we hold, and the 
language we employ^ must be that of the apostle, 
when he said, "It is by the grace of God that I am 
what I am." Yes ! my Christian friends, if the grace 
of God had not brought you salvation, you must 
have been still in your sins, and in your sins you 
must have perished. As it was in that grace, that 
the economy of redemption took its rise, so it is by 
the same grace that you have not only been made 
acquainted with it, but ted also to acquiesce in it — 
that you have been persuaded to accept of him who 
is mighty to save — that you are conducted along 
the path of righteousness — that you are cheered, and 
upheld, and animated amid your manifold trials — 
that you are enabled to rejoice in the hope of glory. 
And at every step you take in the sacred and 
heavenward pilgrimage through which you are pass- 
ing, you have reason to stand still that you may 
not only see the salvation of the Lord your God, 
but exclaim with the mingled feelings of humility 
and gratitude, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, 
but unto thy great name be all the praise." 

It is true, my friends, we speak of the merits of 



10 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER 1. 



Christ as procuring" our salvation : and some may 
be inclined to think, that such a position is not al- 
together consistent with the statement, that our sal- 
vation is wholly of grace. The inconsistency, how- 
ever, is merely ideal. Christ certainly did fulfil the 
law in our stead — he finished transgression, made 
reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in an ever- 
lasting righteousness. But then you will observe 
that all this — the thing which he did — his manner 
of doing it — and the success which crowned his la- 
bours — all this was the gracious appointment of 
God. It is not the right scriptural statement that 
Christ stepped forward, and by a work of mere 
spontaneous suffering and obedience, asserted for 
sinners a title to that which God was not already 
inclined, or had not already determined to bestow, 
He came from God, to execute a plan which God 
had devised in the counsels of eternity : it was by 
God that he was qualified for the great undertak- 
ing ; and by him was the work accepted, because it 
was both the result of his own ordination, and per- 
formed according to the decision and direction of 
his own will. And the satisfaction which Christ 
offered to the divine justice, was nothing more than 
a necessary measure for attaining the purposes of 
the divine love — a step which it was requisite for 
mercy to take in its glorious march towards the 
salvation of perishing sinners. It is far from being 
essential to the free grace of God, that in its 
manifestation no attention should be paid to his 
other attributes. On the contrary, the glory of 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



11 



each of his perfections is concerned in the harmoni- 
ous exercise of them all. And, accordingly, the obe- 
dience of Christ was appointed, in order that his 
holiness and justice might be fully vindicated, while 
his pity operated for the pardon and redemption of 
rebellious men. But then this was his own appoint- 
ment : it was an expression of his grace ; and you 
may judge of the extent of that grace which it ex- 
hibited, when you remember that for our deliver- 
ance from guilt and ruin, he did not spare even his 
own Son, but sent him into the world that he 
might be made under the law, and pour out his 
soul an offering for sin. This arrangement, while 
it secures the authority of God's government and 
the glory of his character, as well as accomplishes 
the salvation of his fallen offspring, does at the same 
time magnify his grace much more than if our ini- 
quities had been blotted out, and our restoration 
effected, by his simple and almighty volition. And 
therefore it is, that the Scriptures, when speaking 
with peculiar emphasis and rapture of the love of 
God, refer to the mission, and incarnation, and 
death of Christ, as its greatest and most overpower- 
ing manifestation. 

It is also true that we speak of your being justi- 
fied and saved through faith. And no doubt it is 
the plain doctrine of Scripture, that without this 
principle we can have no well-grounded hope of 
obtaining forgiveness and acceptance. But, then, 
what is this faith ? Not only is it a gift of God- 
one of the fruits of his Holy Spirit— -wrought in us* 



12 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



and maintained in us, not by our own, but by his 
energy — it is, moreover, that very exercise of the 
mind which refers the whole of our redemption to 
the love of God, as manifested in Jesus Christ. It 
does not, and it cannot, merit redemption. It has 
no efficient virtue in its own nature. It has no 
more good desert in it than any other quality which 
belongs to the renewed mind. It is the appoint- 
ed means of our becoming experimentally interest- 
ed in the Saviour, who is offered to us. It implies 
a renunciation of all dependence upon any thing in 
ourselves. It is a fixing of our dependence upon 
Him who has been set forth as a propitiation for 
our sins. And that propitiation having been insti- 
tuted solely by the divine mercy, faith can be consid- 
ered as nothing more than trust in that mercy as the 
only ground on which we expect to be saved — as the 
only source from which proceed to us all the blessings 
of the gospel. It is in this sense that we are said to 
be " justified by faith." It is in this sense also that 
we are said to be * 4 the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus." And it is in this sense, finally, that 
we are said to be " chosen to salvation, through 
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 

It is also true that we insist upon the necessity 
of personal righteousness in those who shall be 
finally saved. But neither is this incompatible with 
the doctrine of free grace, as stated in my text. 
Holiness and happiness are, in their own relative 
nature and in the divine ordinance, inseparably 
connected — so that unless you be possessed of the 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



13 



one, you cannot be restored to the otlier. You 
cannot be happy, unless you be qualified for the en- 
joyment of that which constitutes happiness ; and 
this qualification consists in being holy. Holiness, 
therefore, is declared in Scripture to be indispensa- 
bly requisite. But then this very holiness is to be 
considered as a part of the salvation which is 
wrought out for you by the grace of God. In the 
exercise of grace to which you had no rightful 
claim, he sent his Son to redeem you from your 
iniquities, and purify you as a peculiar people, and 
to make you zealous of good works. It is in the 
exercise of grace that he communicates to you the 
Holy Spirit, for the very purpose of sanctifying^ 
your souls. It is in the exercise of grace that he 
has established those sacred ordinances which go to 
improve your mind and character, that he puts it 
into your heart to embrace the ever-recurring op- 
portunities of engaging in them, and that he blesses 
these effectually for your good. It is in the exer- 
cise of grace that he overrules the dispensations of 
his providence for teaching you lessons of spiritual 
wisdom, and training you to habits of piety and 
heavenly mindedness. And whereas, even in your 
seasons of holiest resolution and most devoted zeal, 
and in the most favourable circumstances in which 
you can be placed, you are unable of yourselves to 
resist temptation, and to perform your duty, and to 
continue steadfast in the path of obedience, his grace 
is given that it may be sufficient for you, and his 
strength is perfected in your weakness. So that in 



14 



SALVATfON BY GRACE, 



SER. 1. 



this part of the arrangement also, salvation is wholly 
of the grace of God. He not only restores you to 
the hope of eternal life, when he might have left 
you to perish, but he produces in you that holy 
meetness for its exercises and its joys which you 
could never have produced in yourselves, and with- 
out which it never could possibly have been yours. 

In every point of view, therefore, it is by grace 
that ye are saved. It was the grace of God which 
provided salvation for the fallen race of Adam. It 
was his grace that made you acquainted with it, and 
brought it within your reach. It is by his grace 
that you are effectually persuaded to embrace it, 
and prepared for that eternal blessedness in which 
it terminates. And even in those circumstances 
which at first sight may be thought to modify, 
and to limit its freeness and its fulness, we can 
trace not only additional proofs of its existence, 
but the most gratifying illustrations of its tender- 
ness, its riches, and its all-sufficiency. 

1. To those of you, my friends, in whose per- 
sonal experience the remarks now made find a 
counterpart and an echo, I need scarcely say that 
the subject should inspire you with gratitude. You 
know what it is to be afar off, and what it is to be 
brought nigh — you know the value of that salvation 
in which you rejoice, and you know that it all ema- 
nates from the grace of that God whom you had 
done every thing to offend, and could do nothing 
to conciliate ; and knowing these things, and feel- 
ing them too, gratitude must be a sentiment of pre- 

i 



SER 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



15 



vailing and habitual exercise in your minds ; you 
must be conscious that it cannot be too deeply 
cherished or too strongly expressed ; you must la- 
ment, that it is so disproportionate in its warmth 
and in its constancy, and in its practical influence 
to the riches of that saving grace of God, for which 
it is so justly due. That you may be grateful as you 
ought to be, meditate much, and meditate often on 
this great truth, that all your safety, all your bless- 
ings, all your expectations, all that is precious to 
you in time and in eternity, comes from that source 
alone. And, especially, let your souls rise in live- 
liest and devoutest fervour to the merciful Being by 
whose grace ye are saved, when you think of that 
sacrifice of his own Son in which you are called to 
behold at once the reality of his love, its exclusive 
operation in redeeming you, the vastness of its ex- 
tent as exhibited in the costliness of its display, and 
the wisdom, and the efficacy of those means by 
which it has secured for you the salvation which it so 
liberally bestows. Let your souls magnify the Lord, 
and let your spirits rejoice in God your Saviour. 

In those moments of sacred retirement, when you 
hold communion with the Father of your spirits 
and the author of your salvation — and while on 
the family altar, you present to him your morning 
and your evening sacrifices — and while in the taber- 
nacles of his house, you unite with the congrega- 
tions of his people in offering to him the tribute of 
adoration and praise — and while you converse with 
one another in the house, or in the field, or by the 



16 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



way, of the beauties of his character, and of the 
greatness of your privileges and your hopes, — for- 
get not to acknowledge and to celebrate the mag- 
nitude and the liberality of that mercy which he 
has shed upon your spiritual lot, and with which 
he has brightened your eternal prospects. And 
though the infidel is disbelieving it all, and the 
profligate is scoffing at it all, and the worldling 
is neglecting and despising it all, — let the con- 
templation of it elevate your minds with emotions 
of wonder and delight— let your experience of 
its inestimable value kindle in your hearts the 
ardours of reciprocal and devoted affection — let 
it be the song of your pilgrimage, whose path it 
enriches with its bounteous gifts, and whose darkest 
passages it cheers with its great and precious pro- 
mises — and in the thanksgiving of every day and of 
every hour, let there be a preparation for enjoying 
the Halleluiahs of that rapturous and everlasting 
anthem which all the redeemed from the earth shall 
sing in that blessed abode which mercy has provid- 
ed for them, " Unto him that loved us and washed 
us from our sins, in his own blood, and made us 
kings and priests unto God even his father — unto 
him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

°2. The subject we have been considering should 
teach you humility. Were you permitted to think 
that any part of your salvation, however inconsider- 
able was merited or wrought out by yourselves, 
this thought would generate self-complacency ; and 
from the natural tendency of the heart, your own 



SER. 1. SALVATION BY GRACE. 17 

share in the work would be so dwelt and doated 
upon, that even the far larger part of it, which you 
could not but ascribe to divine influence and inter- 
position, would frequently be forgotten and always 
undervalued ; and thus, though unworthy creatures, 
you would be high minded and proud, and give 
place to that passion, which, of all others, is most 
hateful to the sovereign God. But the scriptural 
view of salvation, which we have been attempting 
to illustrate, excludes all boasting, by taking away 
all ground and all pretence for it. All that is good 
in you proceeds from the Father of mercies : no- 
thing that is good is either produced or nourished 
by your own independent energies. Whatever you 
have, therefore, of excellence, or of privilege, or of 
happiness — whether it be much or little, reads you 
a lesson of humility : if a vain-glorious emotion at 
any time rise in your breast, it is an intruder, and 
must be expelled, for it is settled that you possess 
not one quality to warrant or to countenance it : 
and as thus when you give the glory that is due to 
the grace of God by which alone ye are saved, you 
leave nothing in your own character but weakness, 
imperfection, ignorance, guilt and misery, it must 
be that self-abasement shall take possession of your 
minds, that you shall lie low in dust and ashes be- 
fore Him whose fallen, disobedient, helpless crea- 
tures you are, and that he shall see in you that sub- 
dued tone of thinking and feeling, that freedom 
from all pretensions to worth and power, that 
genuine poverty of spirit, which will be the signal 

c 



18 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



for communications of his promised grace, and make 
you fit, because willing and eager recipients of that 
undeserved bounty which he is so ready to pour 
out upon his redeemed and penitent offspring. 
Cherish fondly, then, the doctrine of salvation by 
free grace ; it will make and keep you humble, 
which is at all times, and in all cases, your appro- 
priate attitude in the presence of God ; and while 
it is thus becoming, it will also prove advantageous 
by leading you, in the exercise of that humility 
which it inculcates, to seek for the blessings which 
you need, where alone they are ever to be found, 
in the rich and inexhaustible storehouse of his own 
sovereign mercy. And let your humility be deepen- 
ed by a frequent contemplation of the Redeemer's 
death. That death is a most affecting demonstra- 
tion of your helpless and undone condition by na- 
ture, and by wicked works, as well as of the riches 
of that grace which interposed in your behalf — be- 
cause if you had not been without all merit, and 
without all resource, it cannot be supposed that 
God would have given up his own dear Son to the 
shame and agony of the cross. Measure the depth 
of your own worthlessness, by the depth of Christ's 
humiliation. And give all your vain and lofty ima- 
ginations to the winds. Prostrate yourselves in 
your inmost spirit before the footstool of your God. 
And in that attitude, wait, and watch, and pray for 
that grace, and more abundant communications of 
that grace of His, which alone can pardon, and puri- 
fy, and exalt, and save you. 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



19 



3. This view of the doctrine of salvation by free 
grace also imparts comfort. It imparts comfort, not 
merely because while you are sinners you have a 
merciful God to look to and to deal with, but also 
because the merciful God takes the whole charge 
and management of your salvation. Just suppose 
that any part of it were under your own direction 
■ — that you had something to do either in the for- 
mation, or in the execution of its plan — that certain 
points in your treatment of it, or in its application 
to you, had been intrusted to your care — would not 
this have made room for failure, either partial or 
total, and consequently, for distrust and fearful ap- 
prehension ? But knowing as you do, that the ig- 
norance, the feebleness, the perversity, the corrup- 
tion of fallen man, have had no share either in de- 
vising or in accomplishing it— though the cure and 
removal of these evils are the very objects at which it 
aims — and knowing, moreover, that the whole of it, 
from first to last, is the doing of the Lord, to whom 
no imperfection cleaves, and to whom no attribute 
is wanting — all fearfulness as to the result is out of 
place, and there is the greatest encouragement to 
believe that it will prove as certain, as it promises 
to be great and happy. The grace of God is such 
as to sustain the best and brightest hopes that fallen 
man can entertain. It is rich, tender, abundant, 
and everlasting. There is no evil that it will not 
remove, there is no blessing that it will not confer. 
It delights in the salvation of those on whom it 
fixes its regards and sheds it influence : and will 



20 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



withhold from them nothing* that is good. And 
then it is united in its exercise with every other 
perfection that inheres in Deity. Its purposes are 
devised and executed in conjunction with a wisdom 
which errs not — -a power which nothing" can resist 
— a knowledge which embraces all the wants and 
all the circumstances of its objects — a justice which 
being satisfied by the surety will not demand satis- 
faction from the sinner — and a faithfulness which 
will perform every promise that has been made, and 
will not leave the least and the poorest of those 
about whom it is concerned, till they are safely 
lodged in the mansions of the blessed. And surely, 
my Christian friends, you have in this a consolation 
which you never could have possessed, had any 
portion of the scheme of your salvation been com- 
mitted to yourselves, or to the best, and the wisest, 
and the most perfect of created beings. The con- 
solation is rich, and precious, and free from all ad- 
mixture. Take it then and enjoy it in all its fulness. 
Amidst the many vicissitudes of your Christian lot 
— amidst the darkness that will sometimes envelope 
you — the convictions of sin, and the sense of weak- 
ness, and perversity that will often distress you 
— the temptations and the hostilities that will occa- 
sionally threaten to overwhelm you — the difficulties 
in performing your duty, and in holding fast your 
integrity, which will frequently embarrass and per- 
plex you — the misgivings of mind, and the pressure 
of outward affliction which cannot fail to visit you 
* — the various hardships of life, and the awful ap- 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



proach of death which necessarily await you — amidst 
all these trials, and even when every thing seems to 
wear a forbidding and a frightful aspect, let this be 
your refuge, that by grace ye are saved — that you 
are in the hands of God — that he is keeping you as 
the apple of his eye — that no event can frustrate the 
purposes of his love concerning you^ — that he will 
make all things, even the worst and the severest dis- 
pensations with which you can be overtaken, work 
together for the advancement of your spiritual good, 
and of your eternal felicity. And that y ou may be 
prepared for taking this consolation along with you 
as you travel through the wilderness, and that your 
joy may be full on account of it, even to overflow- 
ing, open your hearts continually to the impression 
of the dying of the Lord Jesus. It was the grace 
of God that appointed that method of redemption. 
Wondrous, indeed, must that grace have been 
which prompted him to make such a sacrifice in 
order to save you. Trust in it now and be com- 
forted — trust in it for ever, and be for ever happy. 
Take this argument along with you. "If God spar- 
ed not his own Son, but freely delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
give us all things" — all things that can contribute 
to your present safety, and secure your entrance to 
the promised land. Take this argument along with 
you, and rejoice with a joy that is unspeakable and 
full of glory. 

4. The subject we have been considering should 
constrain us to cheerful and universal obedience. If 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



the grace of God has been so richly displayed to- 
wards you, unquestionably it becomes you to be 
most anxious and diligent in doing what is well- 
pleasing to him. Remember, besides, that one 
essential branch of that salvation which the grace 
of God has wrought out for you, is the sanctification 
of your heart and life, so that if you indulge in sin 
or be careless in duty, you are doing what you can 
to counteract and frustrate the great purpose which 
in his mercy he offers to accomplish upon your spi- 
ritual and eternal condition. And, then, you have 
this most powerful of all motives and considerations 
to influence you to activity, and devotedness, and 
perseverance in the path of righteousness, that the 
same grace which has promised and provided salva- 
tion, will be imparted in adequate and abundant 
supply, to purify your hearts, to regulate your con- 
duct, to fortify you against temptation, and to enable 
you to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Be re- 
solved, then, not only to be holy, but to be holy in 
all manner of conversation— to consecrate your- 
selves to the service of Him who has loved you — 
to walk closely, and constantly, and obediently with 
God — and to live in this manner, to " the praise of 
the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made you 
accepted in the Beloved." And let your resolution 
to act thus, as those who have " tasted that the Lord 
is gracious," be strengthened and confirmed by the 
death of Christ. For, while Christ died to fulfil the 
purpose of God's mercy respecting your salvation, 
you have in this fact, a proof solemn and affecting, 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



23 



at once of the greatness of that mercy, of the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin, and of the necessity of 
personal purity, so that you cannot rightly meditate 
on the death of Christ without feeling that your 
obligations to be holy, are powerful and constrain- 
ing. Bear these then upon your minds : strive to 
fulfil them faithfully and fully. And in every part 
of your future conduct, show that you are not only 
admirers but partakers of the grace of God, that to 
his grace you sincerely ascribe all the honours of 
your salvation, and that, depending upon the grace 
by which ye are saved, for strength as well as for 
righteousness, you will study to obey God, by be- 
ing conformed to the image of Christ, " in whom ye 
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness 
of sins, according to the riches of his grace." 

A single word to those who reject the salvation 
of the gospel, and despise the free grace by which 
it is provided. Remember that though the grace 
of God has had its perfect work, his justice is still 
entire to punish those who rebel, and persist in their 
rebellion. And to trample and set at nought his 
grace must tend only to aggravate the offence by 
which his justice is already roused, and to in- 
crease the punishment which it has already denounc- 
ed. And though the grace of God by which sin- 
ners are saved, is exceeding rich, there may be a 
period, though unknown to us, beyond which it 
will not extend ; and if you are obstinately with- 
standing its kind and melting invitations, it may 
cease to wait for you, and at length abandon you 



24 



SALVATION BY GRACE, 



SER. 1. 



to hopeless and final impenitence. O then, be per- 
suaded to surrender yourselves to its saving- power, 
and to give yourselves to the God by whom it is 
manifested! " Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die." 

There are some of you, I fear, whose limbs are 
trembling, or whose heads are hoary with age, and 
to whom one pastor after another has addressed the 
message of salvation by free grace, but to whom 
that message has been addressed in vain, and who 
are continuing- to live as if there were no justice to 
punish you for your guilt, or as if there were no 
grace to redeem you from it. Once more I bring 
this message to you, and beseech you to listen to it, 
before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, 
and death approaches to put his seal upon your 
everlasting fate. Long have you been wandering 
away from God, mocking at his judgments, and 
despising the compassionate counsels which he has 
given you in his word and sent you by his servants. 
And if you persist in this thoughtless and stout- 
hearted course, you may never again hear a warning 
to flee from the wrath to come, and it is but a short 
and passing hour when you must go into that place 
where God has forgotten to be gracious, and where 
his mercy is clean gone for ever. But, if you will 
allow yourselves to be persuaded, and even at this 
latest hour, will repent, and believe, and obey the 
gospel, long and obstinately as you have been fight- 
ing against the authority of God, and resisting the 
calls of his pity, I am warranted to assure you of 
acceptance and salvation, because the blood of atone- 



SLR. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



ment, on which he beseeches you to rely, cleanses 
from all sin, and his mercy reaches far enough to 
embrace even the chief of sinners. O then be re- 
conciled to him by the death of his Son. Cast your- 
selves upon his unmerited, but never-failing love. 
Lay hold of salvation as his free gift. And let his 
redeeming grace be your confidence and your re- 
joicing and your hope during the short evening of 
your pilgrimage, that it may bear you comfortably 
through the agonies of your departure, and carry 
you away as trophies of its riches and its power, to 
the glories of a better world. 

And if you are young and healthful, yet count 
not upon the years and the opportunities of a 
lengthened life. At whatever time you are saved, 
it must be by grace. And if the grace of God is 
now bringing you salvation, and offering it to you, 
and pressing it upon you, why will you delay ac- 
cepting of this salvation, as if it were not at this 
moment as valuable and as necessary as it ever can 
be at any future period ? The longer you defer 
embracing it, the more hardened will you become 
against the influences of that grace which confers 
and applies it, and the more difficult will it be to 
prevail upon your hearts to renounce the sins which 
now prevent you from receiving it, and to acquiesce 
in the method by which alone you can become the 
happy partakers of it. And then what security 
have you that you will be spared till that chosen 
hour when, perhaps, you are determined that you 
will seek for its blessings, and never desist from the 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



pursuit till they become yours ? You have, you can 
have no such security. Sickness of body, insanity 
of mind, sudden and unexpected death may come 
upon*you, and eternally shut out the hope of mak- 
ing* one effort even of reliance upon that grace of 
God, by which alone you can be saved, or of ever 
again hearing the doctrine which we have been 
urging on your reception. " Now is the accepted 
time — now is the day of salvation" — listen to the 
voice of God to-day, and harden not your hearts. 
Let not another sun go down upon your impeni- 
tence and unbelief. Be resolved that you will be the 
Lord's — that you will cleave to him as your Savi- 
our, your guide, your portion, and your all. And 
thus surrendering yourselves to him in early life, he 
will make goodness and mercy to follow you all 
your days — at whatever hour he calls you away, 
the arms of his kindness will be underneath you 
and round about you— and as he has given you 
grace here, he will give you glory hereafter. 

Let me beseech you all to think of the privileges 
you enjoy and of the account you are to render ; 
and let me especially remind you who belong to 
this parish, of the new relation into which you have 
been lately brought, and of the responsibility con- 
nected with it. No relation can be more important 
—no responsibility can be more awful. My young 
friend, to whom, as a pastor in the church of 
Christ, your spiritual interests have been commit- 
ted, will deceive and disappoint me much, if he 
do not preach to you faithfully and earnestly the 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



27 



sovereign grace of God— the unsearchable riches of 
Christ — the doctrine of salvation by divine mercy 
through faith in a crucified Redeemer — and the 
necessity of holiness as produced by the renewing 
and sanctifying influences of the Spirit, and as ex- 
tending to all the affections of the heart, and to all 
the actions of the life. I feel confident that he will 
devote himself to the sacred and momentous work 
which has been given him to do-— that he will 
cheerfully spend and be spent in the service of his 
Divine Master — that he will be instant, agreeably to 
the apostle's exhortation, in season and out of season 
— that he will, with all anxiety, administer instruc- 
tion, and warning, and reproof, and encouragement, 
and consolation according to the various characters 
and circumstances of his people — that in all these 
things he will watch for your souls as one that 
must give an account, and as one that loves 
you for Christ's sake and for your own. I 
trust that, feeling the weight of those obligations 
under which he has come as a minister of the Son 
of God, and as your watchman and overseer in the 
Lord, he will make it the business of his life — not 
an occasional or subordinate work, but his grand 
and paramount object, in which his whole affections 
are engaged, and to which his whole energies are 
consecrated — to awaken perishing sinners from the 
sleep of spiritual death, to comfort them that are 
mourning in Sion, to build up the saints in their 
most holy faith, and to prepare inhabitants for the 
mansions that are in his Father's house above. And 



28 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1. 



I pray that whatever difficulties and trials he may 
have to encounter in the arduous office upon which 
he has entered, he may be enabled, through the 
help that cometh from on high, to sustain and to 
overcome them all ; that whatever he may have to 
suffer from gainsayers, he will not cease to love 
you, and to pray for you, and to labour in your 
behalf ; that " none of these things will move him," 
and that he will not " count even his life dear to 
him, so that he may finish his course with joy, and 
the ministry which he has received of the Lord 
Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." 

But think not, my friends, that all the duty and 
all the accountability attach to him. If it be his 
duty to preach to you the doctrines of grace and of 
godliness, and to strive for your conversion, and 
salvation, and happiness, it is your duty to receive 
his doctrines in the faith and the obedience of them, 
to listen to his voice as he calls you to glory and 
to virtue, to become all that the gospel, whose 
message he delivers, is intended to make you, and 
to show in your practical subjection to the right- 
eousness and authority of Christ, that you have not 
received the grace of God in vain. And if he must 
give an account of himself and of his stewardship 
to the great master of that vineyard, in a corner of 
which he has been appointed to work, so must each 
of you, whether old or young, whether rich or 
poor, whether in one relation or in another — every 
one of you must appear before the judgment-seat 
of Christ, to answer for the spirit and the manner 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



29 



in which you have received his servant, for the 
value which you have put upon the redemption 
that your pastor offers you and presses upon you in 
his Master's name, for the improvement that you 
have made of all the undeserved benefits which, 
through the ministry of the gospel, have been urged 
upon your reception by all the terrors of the Lord, 
and by all the compassions of him who died for 
you. 

And O, will you reject the provision which 
God's grace has made for the life, and the nourish- 
ment, and the felicity of your never-dying spirits ? 
Or, will you take no deep-felt interest in the scheme 
of everlasting salvation, which was devised in the 
eternal counsels of the Godhead — which was pur- 
chased with a price that it mocked the riches of a 
universe to pay — which prophets and apostles, and 
evangelists and pastors, have been ordained to pro- 
mulgate and administer to a guilty world — and 
which, with a fulness of blessing that imagination 
cannot fathom, comes as a suppliant to your verv 
door, and knocks for admittance into your very 
heart ? Or will you banish from your view, or 
will you lightly esteem that period of coming retri- 
bution, at which God will reckon with each one of 
you for the reception you have given to a preached 
gospel and an offered Saviour — when he who now 
beseeches you by the agonies of his cross to be re- 
conciled, will sit upon the throne of righteous judge- 
ment to award your never-ending doom, and when 
assembled myriads will be looking on to see you 



30 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



SER. 1 



taking your place on the right hand or on the left 
hand of the great white throne, and listening to 
the voice which, louder than a thousand thun- 
ders, and irresistible as omnipotence, sends you to 
heaven or to hell ? No, my dear friends, I trust 
that none of you is thus insensible to what so 
deeply and necessarily concerns you, now and for 
ever. Settle it in your minds at this moment ; vow 
it in your inmost soul ; let that sun which now 
looks upon you, as an emblem of him who called 
himself the light of the world, witness the engage- 
ment which you make ; let the God whose eye, 
brighter than all the luminaries that shine in the 
firmament, penetrates the deepest recesses of thought 
and of purpose, and whose presence encompasses 
and pervades you ; let God be invoked to sanction 
the covenant into which you now enter — that you 
will separate yourselves from the world that lieth 
in wickedness ; that you will repair to the foot of 
that cioss on which Christ expiated the guilt of his 
people ; that there you will surrender your souls 
and your bodies to the redeeming power and to the 
sanctifying grace of Jehovah ; that you will honour 
those whom he sends to leave his message and 
plead his cause with you ; and that, with grateful 
and rejoicing hearts, you will walk in the way that 
he points out as the way that leads to life and im- 
mortality. And when inward corruption, or an 
ensnaring world, or spiritual enemies, interfere to 
weaken your faith and seduce you into sin, think 
of your obligations — think of the grace by which 



SER. 1. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 



31 



alone you can be saved — think of the wounds by 
which Jesus takes away your transgressions — think 
of the love of that Holy Spirit whom your back- 
sliding will grieve — think of the sorrows of those 
who, desiring you to be their crown of joy and re- 
joicing, must mourn and weep when they see your 
falling away — think of the endless ages that lie be- 
fore you ; and let all these considerations put their 
interdict upon every unbelieving thought — upon 
every unholy desire — upon every forbidden grati- 
fication ; and determine you, under God, to re- 
main steadfast in the faith of the gospel, and in- 
flexible in your adherence to that Saviour, who en- 
courages you to steadfastness and perseverance by 
this high promise, " Unto him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me upon my throne, even 
as I also overcame and am set down with my Fa- 
ther upon his throne/' 



SERMON II.* 



HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 
ROMANS V. 7) 8. 

" For scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet peradventure 
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commend- 
eth his love toward us, in that, while ive were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us" 

God's love to men, in its various relations, and in 
its various expressions, is the great and prevalent 
theme of the gospel. The gospel, indeed, is alto- 
gether a manifestation of that love, not only in the 
plan which it unfolds, but throughout all the lan- 
guage of its record. It is not only asserted that 
God loves us, but one principal object of whatever 
the sacred writers have been prompted to say, ap- 
pears to be that of magnifying the divine attribute, 
and enhancing the estimation in which it should be 
held by those who are the objects of its exercise. 
And they do so, by employing simple but empha- 
tic declarations — by indulging in bold and striking 

* Preached at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, in St. George's 
Church, Edinburgh, 10th May 1829. 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. S3 

figures — and by having- recourse to interesting, fa- 
miliar, and impressive analogies. 

Of this latter mode of showing forth the great- 
ness of God's love, we have an excellent example 
in the words of my text. The apostle draws his il- 
lustration from what occurs among men — from 
their sentiments and behaviour towards those of 
their own species, whom they are led to succour or 
befriend. In the practical regards, which they ex- 
hibit for one another in circumstances of danger, 
or in times of need, we may sometimes be called to 
witness an extraordinary display of generosity and 
disinterestedness. But the most surprising instance 
of it, which has actually happened, or which can 
even be expected or imagined to happen, comes far 
— comes infinitely — behind that love to our race 
which God has revealed in the scheme of human 
redemption. On comparison, not only does the 
latter infinitely surpass the former in degree, but 
it possesses a richness, and it flows in a direction, 
and it engages in enterprises, and it delights in 
doings, which constitute a perfect contrast be- 
tween the one and the other, and represent the 
love of God to man as belonging to a higher order 
of affections, than the love of man to his fellow, 
even in its purest and loftiest achievements. 

Let us give our attention for a little to this im- 
portant subject, by considering the two branches 
separately, into which it here divides itself, and the 
relation which they bear to the apostle's object in 
bringing them under our view. 

D 



34 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SEIi. % 

L First, there is the love of man to his fellow- 
creatures. " For scarcely for a righteous man will 
one die ; yet peradventure for a good man some 
would even dare to die." 

In the annals of the world, you may find in- 
stances of generosity and of gratitude, in which 
these sentiments were manifested by the greatest of 
all personal sacrifices— the sacrifice of life. But 
such instances are rare, — so rare, that the apostle 
himself does not seem to have been aware of one 
which he could specify as authentic and appropri- 
ate ; for he speaks here, not as if he had a matter 
of real and known fact in his eye, but only as if he 
were admitting an hypothesis, an event within the 
bounds of possibility or of likelihood. And, with 
all your knowledge of history, even since the intro- 
duction of Christianity has engendered the spirit, 
and given larger room for the exploits, of a nobler 
philanthropy, there are but few among you, per- 
haps, who can produce a single example of the 
benevolent heroism to which we allude. You may 
have read or heard of frightful dangers being en- 
countered, poignant sufferings being endured, and 
extraordinary alienations of wealth or power be- 
ing submitted to, for the purpose of rescuing 
others from threatened and inevitable destruction* 
There may be cases of this kind, amounting to the 
romantic and the splendid, which cannot be con- 
templated without admiration, and which redeem 
our species, in some measure, from the stigma of 
that selfishness which is generally imputed to it, and 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 35 

by which it is too truly characterised. But seldom 
has it been known, that any one has deliberately 
devoted himself to death, in order to deliver his 
fellow-mortal even from the heaviest calamity, or 
to procure for him even the most precious privilege. 
And among the few solitary cases of this kind, with 
which the course of ages has furnished us, it may 
not perhaps be difficult to discover, that the deed 
which has been ascribed to generous and high- 
wrought feeling, might be justly, and in a great 
degree at least, traced to the workings of self-love, 
or to a desire for posthumous fame, or to some 
other motive which detracts from the worth and 
purity of the affection that was supposed to be chiefly 
operative. 

Granting, however, that instances could be ad- 
duced free from all such imperfection and alloy, it 
remains true, that wherever the elevated spirit in 
question has displayed itself, it has been uniformly 
a tribute paid to distinguished and commanding ex- 
cellence, or in acknowledgment of obligations too 
strong and too sacred to be satisfactorily fulfilled 
by a less noble or a less costly recompense. It has 
been dictated by an enthusiastic and worshipping 
delight in pre-eminent virtue, or called forth by 
such experience of undeserved, and unexpected, 
and unmeasured kindness, as overpowers every 
consideration of ease and safety, and can be con- 
tented with nothing short of the highest and most 
unbounded expressions of reciprocal attachment. 
And, if we seek for it animating a single bosom, or 



36 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER. 2. 

giving birth to a single effort, where it had nothing 
to awaken it, or nothing to work upon but moral 
corruption, base ingratitude, bitter hostility, total 
and inveterate worthlessness — we shall seek for it 
in vain, for we shall seek for that, to which there is 
no adequate cause—no counterpart in the rational 
constitution of man — to which his judgment and his 
sensibilities are in thorough opposition, and of 
which, therefore, the whole earth has never afford- 
ed the slightest proof, or been visited with one so- 
litary practical illustration. 

" Scarcely for a righteous man will one die." 
Suppose an individual distinguished by the strictest 
principles of honour and integrity ; who had ever 
abhorred the most distant approach to any thing 
that savoured of injustice or oppression ; who had 
exerted himself on all occasions to maintain the 
rights, and redress the wrongs, of others ; and who 
not only had committed no offence against the com- 
munity, but whose undeviating rectitude, whose 
righteous deportment, whose immoveable fidelity, 
whose defence of truth, whose practice of all the 
sterner virtues, arising from the fear of God and 
the hatred of every thing that is mean or base, had 
distinguished him above his every associate and fel- 
low-citizen, and rendered him the object of pro- 
found and universal veneration ; suppose that 
such a person had long filled your eye and com- 
manded your respect, and that by the decree of ini- 
quity or of despotism, he were doomed to expiate 
an imaginary crime on an ignominious scaffold— 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SJ 

which of you would step forward to ward off his 
fate, and to save his life by the sacrifice of your 
own ? Is there one in the whole range of your per- 
sonal acquaintance, or is there one of all the multi- 
tude that books and fame have brought within the 
sphere of your knowledge, whom you could confi- 
dently expect to pay such a difficult and an expen- 
sive homage to moral greatness in the form of fallen 
humanity ? Or, from what you feel in your own 
minds, and from what you know of that nature 
which you have in common with the whole poste- 
rity of Adam, could you anticipate that any man, 
with all the passionate devotedness he might be con- 
ceived to possess to whatsoever things are true, and 
virtuous, and venerable, could so far overcome his 
inborn repugnance to the suffering of death, as that 
he would willingly submit to it, even in its mildest 
shape, in order to purchase an exemption from the 
evil for him who had been thus long and deservedly 
the object of his deepest reverential regard ? No, 
my friends ; neither experience, nor observation, 
nor any acquaintance you may otherwise have with 
mankind, will justify you in speculating on such an 
instance of love, as coming within the limits of pro- 
bability, or in affirming it as a fact which has at any 
time been exhibited to the world. You can only 
allow it to be possible ; and say with the apostle, 
that " scarcely for a righteous man will one die." 

But, supposing, that to the righteousness of this 
individual, we were to add the more engaging and 
attractive graces of benevolence j supposing that he 



38 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER. % 

shrunk from the very idea of inflicting pain on any 
of his fellow-creatures — that he sympathized with 
all the children of affliction — that he was prompt, 
and liberal, and unwearied, in relieving distress 
wherever it was to be found— that he was ever 
ready to help his friends, and to forgive his ene- 
mies — that he delighted in scattering blessings over 
all his neighbourhood, and diffusing happiness 
throughout the whole family of mankind — that the 
poor and the ignorant, the fatherless and the wi- 
dow, the sorrowful and the outcast, found in him a 
refuge from their troubles, and a solace to their 
hearts — that he was distinguished, in short, by all 
that is melting in tenderness, by all that is winning 
in compassion, by all that is god-like in beneficence; 
and supposing that his goodness had not been able 
to screen him from the tyrant's violence, but had 
only seemed to hasten his fall, and to bring upon 
him the doom of most unmerited destruction, would 
there be any among those to whom such merciful 
and generous characters as his are dearest — would 
there be any, even of those who had shared most 
plentifully in the kindness that he felt, and in the 
bounties that he lavished, and over whose feelings 
gratitude had acquired the most undivided ascend- 
ency, that would agree to be his substitute, to re- 
ceive the stroke which was about to fall upon him, 
and to expire amidst shame and torture, in his be- 
half? Yes ; you may conceive such cases to occur. 
There is something within us which, though it 
amounts not to all that is requisite for the heroism 



SER, 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 39 

that is imagined, seems to tell us, that by minds 
of greater ardour and of stronger nerve, it is a 
practicable attainment. And it is believed, that 
even in this world — so barren of sublime morality — 
it has been oftener than once realized. Still, how- 
ever, the apostle speaks correctly when he says, 
that it is only " some" who would thus die for a 
good man — that, even for this act of chivalrous per- 
formance, there would be required a " daring" 
of which man's breast is seldom conscious — and 
that after all, the fact must be qualified with a 
" peradventure," as if it were still but doubtful, and 
hardly to be numbered among the higher accom- 
plishments of our species, or among the nobler ca- 
pabilities of our nature. 

To the statement of the apostle, we may super- 
add the statement of our Lord himself, that " great- 
er love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends." This is the utmost limit to 
which human affection can go. No higher or more 
precious exercise of it can be predicated with any 
degree of certainty and truth. The tie of friend- 
ship is strong and endearing. Those whom it 
unites have a mutual sympathy and a mutual com- 
placency, to which the strongest ordinary likings 
and alliances bear no proper comparison. They 
have a community of attachments and aversions, 
of joys and of sorrows. Their hearts are knit to- 
gether, as if they were one. It is misery for them 
to be separated in life, and greater misery still to 
be divided by death. And he is happiest who is 



40 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED, SER. 2. 

privileged to offer the largest sacrifices for the wel- 
fare and the safety of the other, when opportunity 
occurs, or when circumstances require. Under 
such impulses, it is not difficult to call up cases to 
our imagination, and it may not be impossible to 
discover cases in history, which hold out one man 
risking or surrendering his life, that he may vindi- 
cate the honour, or redeem the life, of another. And 
this may be still more readily admitted, if we con- 
sider friendship as comprehending those relation- 
ships of kindred, which, binding husband and wife, 
parent and child, brother and sister, by a thousand 
endearments, render delegated suffering a pleasure, 
as well as a duty, and instinctively prompt to ef- 
forts and endurances, from whose ample range even 
the terrors of death are not excluded. 

Now, in all the examples to which we have re- 
ferred, the sacrifice is made in consideration of mo- 
tives that arise from worth exhibited, or benefits 
conferred, or obligations of some kind or other im- 
posed, by them on whose account it has been de- 
manded. Scarcely for a "righteous man" will one die 
— peradventure for a " good man," some will even 
dare to die — greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man should lay down his life for " his friend." 
But supposing a person destitute of these claims on 
generous feeling — supposing him, on the contrary, 
to be iniquitous, malevolent, and hostile ; suppos- 
ing him to be covered with moral deformity that 
makes him loathsome, and guilty of atrocious crimes 
committed against the comfort, the reputation, the 



S£R. °2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 41 

honour, of one who had lavished upon him every 
token of kind regard, who had treated him with 
the confidence of a friend, with the affection of a 
brother, with the tenderness of a parent — and sup- 
posing that for all his demerit, he had been con- 
demned to die, and under his sentence of condemna- 
tion, cherished as bitter an enmity, and expressed as 
determined a vengeance, against his benefactor as he 
had ever done before — would that benefactor, or 
would any of the children of men, consent to occu- 
py his room, and suffer his judicial fate, in order to 
send him back again to the life, and the liberty, and 
the enjoyment, which he had so justly forfeited ? 
Ah ! no : that is a height of love, which humanity 
has never reached, and of which humanity is utter- 
ly incapable. Philosophy may conjecture it as pos- 
sible, and poetry may give it a place in her fictitious 
delineations. But we observe not the seeds or ele- 
ments of it in the moral constitution of man. In 
vain shall we search for any exemplification of it in 
the annals of human philanthropy. The scripture 
represents it as utterly unattainable. And were it 
ever to occur, we should be compelled to regard it 
as a miracle not less striking, than the most won- 
derful of all those wonderful works which stamped 
divinity on the economy of Moses, and on the gos- 
pel of Christ. 

II. But that which man in all his love to his 
brethren has never felt, or offered, or accomplish- 
ed, has been realized and manifested in the love 



42 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER. <2. 

which he has experienced from the holy God. 
" God commendeth his love toward us, in that, 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 

The love of God is illustrated by two circum- 
stances here specifically stated. First, " Christ died 
for us and, secondly and chiefly, he " died for 
us, while we were yet sinners." 

1. " Christ died for us." The apostle could not 
speak of God dying for us, which would have been 
the exact parallel ; for death cannot possibly be pre- 
dicated of him who is eternal, and who " alone hath 
immortality." In the First Epistle of John, indeed, 
at the third chapter, and sixteenth verse, our version 
reads thus — " Hereby perceive we the love of God, 
because he laid down his life for us." But in the 
original, it is not " the love of God," but merely 
" the love," or " love ;" and, therefore, we should 
rather render the passage in the following man- 
ner : — 6 ' Hereby perceive we the love of God in 
Christ ; or hereby perceive we love— divine love, 
because he, in whom, and, by whom, that love has 
been manifested, died for us." Or, if we take it as 
it stands in our version, we are to consider it as 
ascribing to God what strictly and properly can be 
affirmed only of Christ, — of Christ as " God mani- 
fest in the flesh," possessing the divine and human 
natures in mysterious union, the divine nature 
imparting a dignity and a value to the human na- 
ture, and to the sufferings and death that it en- 
dured, which it could not otherwise have had. A 
similar form of expression is found in the Acts of the 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 43 

Apostles, at the 20th chapter and 28th verse, where 
Paul is represented as saying to the elders of Ephe- 
sus, 44 Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and 
to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost 
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of 
God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." 
In the rigid sense of the terms it could not he the 
blood of God ; but it was the blood of 44 Emmanuel, 5 ' 
or " God with us," incarnate in "the man Christ Je- 
sus." When we speak of the 44 arm" of God, we mean 
his power: when we speak of his 44 eye," we mean his 
omniscience ; and when the apostle speaks of his 
44 blood," he means the atonement which was made 
for sin by him, who was God and man in one per- 
son, and whose supreme deity gave to his suffering 
humanity its virtue, for the expiation of human 
guilt. 

When, therefore, it is said, in the words of our 
text, as a proof of God's love, that 44 Christ died for 
us," we must remember, exactly and impressively, 
who Christ was, as well as what he did. He died 
for us that he might take away our sin, and make 
reconciliation for our iniquity. And we cannot 
estimate sufficiently the pains and the ignominy of 
that death, to which he submitted, as the punish- 
ment that was due from holy and incensed omni- 
potence, to a rebellious, degenerate, and guilty 
world. But, in viewing it as a manifestation of 
divine love, it is necessary to recollect the intimate 
connexion, which God had with it, The scheme, 
of which it formed the leading feature and the es~ 



44 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER. 2. 

sential principle, was altogether of his appointment. 
" He so loved the world, as to give his only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might 
not perish, but have everlasting life" And in re- 
ference to his incarnate Son becoming a sin-offering 
for us, he is said to have 44 laid upon him the iniqui- 
ty of us all," and to have " set him forth as a propi- 
tiation for our sins through faith in his blood." 
And, while God was thus so gracious, as to devise 
a plan, by which our souls might be redeemed 
through the sacrifice of Christ, it becomes us to 
think of the relation in which Christ stood to him. 
Christ was not the creature, nor the mere servant 
of God, but 4 4 his Son, his only begotten and well 
beloved Son, the brightness of his glory, and the 
express image of his person," Yet, though thus pos- 
sessed of all the attributes of divinity, and forming 
the object of the ineffable complacency and love of 
his Father, God did 44 not spare him," but prepared a 
body for his inhabitation, sent him to sojourn in 
our evil world, made him 44 a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief," and then 44 freely delivered 
him up to the death for us all." So that, 44 in this 
was manifested the love of God toward us, because 
that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, 
that we might live through him." 

2. But the principal evidence of God's love to 
us is contained in the fact, that Christ died for us, 
44 while we were yet sinners." 

Had the nature and character of man been such, 
as that the eye of God could have looked on him 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 45 



with complacency — had there existed in him a pa- 
ramount disposition to keep the divine command- 
ments, and to promote the divine glory — had he 
followed such a course of obedience as at once con- 
formed to the will, and reflected the image of him, 
who is " glorious in holiness" — or, having, through 
the power of temptation, fallen from his allegiance, 
had the feelings of penitential regret and sorrow 
pervaded his heart, and made him willing to return 
to the path he had forsaken, and to regain the fa- 
vour he had lost ; and, amidst numerous failings 
and transgressions, had there been a resolute stri- 
ving to render any portion of that submission which 
the great ruler of the universe must ever require 
from the rational subjects whom he governs — had 
these been the circumstances of the case, we should 
not have been amazed by any degree of condescen- 
sion and of pity which appeared in God's admini- 
stration towards the human race. Mysterious and 
adorable as the incarnation of his own Son, and its 
accompanying course of humiliation, must have 
been in our esteem, whatever gave rise to such an 
act of benignity, still we should have observed 
in the objects whom it regarded, the qualities 
that seemed to merit or to justify it, on the ordi- 
nary principles of moral rectitude and consistency. 
But the marvel lies in this, that there was no good 
desert — no amiableness of disposition — no excel- 
lence of conduct — no compunction for offence, and 
no desire of reformation — to attract the regards of a 
holy being, and to invite a willing interposition of 



46 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER. & 

his benevolence. On the contrary, there was worth- 
lessness, there was guilt, there was perversity, and 
such a degree of these odious qualities, as to alie- 
nate kind affection — to provoke a just indignation — 
to warrant an utter exclusion from happiness and 
from hope. It was this barrier which lay be- 
tween God and his apostate offspring ; and in 
surmounting it, he has outstripped all the doings, 
and all the conceptions of man, respecting the 
exercise of compassion between one intelligence 
and another, and caused us to wonder and to wor- 
ship at the extent of that love, which he has embo- 
died in the death of Christ for the salvation of sin- 
ners. 

We were " yet sinners," when Christ died for us. 
We were not only undeserving of a single token 
or communication of good will, but corrupt and 
vile throughout every department of our moral 
frame, and throughout the whole extent of our 
moral practice. We had incurred the displeasure of 
" him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," 
and who " hates all the workers of it with a perfect 
hatred," and had fully merited the penalty with 
which he had righteously armed and sanctioned his 
law. We had no sincere regret, no genuine abase- 
ment, no penitential visitings of the soul, to melt 
his indignant eye, to arrest his avenging arm, to 
stay his coming wrath, to bespeak his relentings, 
and his long suffering, and his sparing mercy. And 
having trampled on his rich goodness, as well as 
disobeyed and insulted his dread authority, we had 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 47 

thus arrayed against us that very attribute on which 
alone we could have depended, and to which alone 
we could have appealed. So that had our own 
case been presented to us in all its melancholy de- 
tails and bearings, and had we judged of it by the 
feelings of man to man, and the treatment of man 
by man within the whole range of human conscious- 
ness and experience, we must have at once con- 
cluded, that if such an arrangement as the death of 
Christ for sinners was necessary for their redemp- 
tion, the favour of God which they had lost by 
transgression they had lost for ever, and that no- 
thing awaited them but punishment, and misery, 
and despair. 

But there are resources in the eternal mind, which 
are equally beyond our reach and our comprehen- 
sion. There is a power, and a magnitude, and a 
richness in the love of God towards those upon 
whom it is set, to which the love of the creature 
cannot even approximate, of which the imagina- 
tion of the creature could not have formed any 
previous idea, and which, even to the experience of 
the creature, presents a subject of inscrutable mys- 
tery — a theme of wondering gratitude and praise. 
Man may love, man should love, man must love 
his fellows ; but he never did, and never can love 
them like God. His is a love that throws man's 
into the distance and the shade. Had he only 
loved us as man loves, there would have been no 
salvation — no heaven — no felicity for us— no glad 
tidings to cheer our hearts ; — no promised land on 



48 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER. 2. 

which to fix our anticipations — no table of com- 
memoration and of communion spread for us in 
the wilderness, to refresh us amidst the toils, and 
the languishing^, and the sorrows of our pilgrimage 
thither. His violated law must have taken its 
course ; the vials of his wrath must have been pour- 
ed out ; and everlasting, unmitigated ruin must 
have been our portion. But behold ! God is love 
itself; and his love, in all its workings, and in all 
its influences, and in all its effects, can stoop to no 
parallel with the best and most ardent of human 
affections. Guilt, which forbids and represses 
man's love, awakens, and kindles, and secures 
God's. Death for the guilty is too wide a gulf for 
man's love to pass over. God's love to the guilty 
is infinitely " stronger than death," and spurns at all 
such limits, and smiles at the agonies and the ig- 
nominies of a cross, that it may have its perfect 
work. God, in the exercise of his love towards 
our sinful and miserable race, is concerned, where 
man would be unmoved, indifferent, and cold. God 
is full of pity, where man would frown with stern 
and relentless aversion. God forgives, where man 
would condemn and punish. God saves, where 
man would destroy. " While we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for us." Well may we ask, " Is 
this the manner of man, O Lord God ?" And 
well may God answer, " My thoughts are not 
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways ; 
for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are 
my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 49 



than your thoughts. And well may we exclaim, 
" Herein, indeed, is love ; not that we loved God — 
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins." " O the breadth, and 
length, and depth, and height of the love of God 
and of Christ ; it passeth knowledge !" 

We cannot enter, at present, into a full applica- 
tion of the interesting subject, which we have en- 
deavoured to illustrate. But our time has been 
occupied to little purpose, and we must be very 
unsusceptible of good impressions, if all that we 
have offered to your attention be allowed to pass 
away as a dreamy or useless speculation, and if we 
do not more or less experience its practical influ- 
ence in our minds, and manifest it in our conduct. 
There is no theme more deeply affecting than the 
love of God, as revealed and set forth in the death 
of Christ for sinners. It embraces all our perma- 
nent interests. It is fitted to exert a happy and 
improving power over the whole of our Christian 
character. It is fraught with the richest consola- 
tion which can be needed by us, or administered to 
us, in our circumstances of sinfulness, and danger, 
and distress. And whatever imperfections may 
attach to our illustrations of it, the simple fact an- 
nounced in the text, is such as to teach us many 
useful lessons, and to exert upon us many salutary 
influences, unless we are strongly cased in infide- 
lity and impenitence. And O, if even our infide- 
lity and impenitence will not melt away at the con- 

E 



50 HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. SER, 2. 

templatton of God's rich and ineffable love to our 
guilty race, how aggravated must be our condem- 
nation, and how utterly hopeless — how impenetra- 
bly dark — how superlatively wretched, must be all 
our future prospects ! But if the love of God be 
felt by us in all its importance, and in all its power, 
it will constrain us to accept the boon it has 
provided for us at such a costly rate, and to prize 
the salvation which comes thus recommended to 
us, as of inestimable value. It will stir us up to 
love God in return — to feel for him a love which 
will fill and pervade the heart, which will lead us to 
seek and to take delight in holding spiritual inter- 
course with him, and which will be embodied in 
our life and conversation, determining us to devote 
ourselves cordially and constantly to the service of 
him who has redeemed us in his love and in his 
pity, that we might be to him a holy people. It 
will encourage us to confide in God for every bless- 
ing that we need, and to confide in him even when 
appearances would indicate that he has forgotten us 
or cast us off; for the truth contained in the text 
is incompatible with any disposition on his part to 
refuse us whatsoever our necessities may require. 
" He that spared not his own Son, but freely deliv- 
ered him up to the death for us all, how shall he 
not with him also freely give us all things and 
how can he ever leave or forsake those whom he 
thus purchased at the price of blood, so precious and 
divine. And finally, it will make us embrace every 
opportunity of celebrating its greatness, of pro 

5 



SER. 2. HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE CONTRASTED. 51 

claiming- our sense of those obligations under which 
it has laid us, of exercising all those sentiments 
which it naturally inspires, and of pledging ourselves 
to all that conduct which it both prescribes and ex- 
emplifies. In the good providence of God, that 
opportunity is now before us. Let us cheerfully 
and gratefully avail ourselves of it. Let us sit 
down at a communion table with hearts overflow- 
ing with love to Him who first loved us, and who 
loved us in the midst of our unworthiness, and who 
loved us even to the death. Let us exercise a vi- 
gorous and a lively faith in the merit of that great 
atonement, which the wisdom of God, in further- 
ance of the love of God, has appointed for cancel- 
ling- our guilt, and establishing our peace and hope. 
Let us be filled with sentiments of profound humi- 
lity and godly sorrow, as we read, in the memorials 
of Christ's death, the evil and the bitterness of sin 
which rendered it necessary, and, to take away 
which, its shame and its agonies were endured. Let 
us abound in joy when we meditate on the fruitful 
and inexhaustible mercy, which we are called to 
remember as we shew forth the Lord's death, and 
from which we are emboldened to draw consolation 
and encouragement, and a liberal and constant sup- 
ply to every necessity that can possibly occur in our 
lot. And having experienced the love of God in 
giving Christ to the death for us, let us rest upon 
the promise, that this divine Saviour will come 
again — that he, whom we commemorate as having 
once suffered for our transgressions, will appear 



52 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

hereafter, and ere long, to give us complete and eter- 
nal redemption, and that, having rescued us from 
the dishonours of the grave, and clothed us with 
the robe of immortality, and introduced us into the 
incorruptible inheritance of his Father's kingdom, 
he will give us in our everlasting experience to un- 
derstand the full meaning, and will tune our hearts 
for pouring forth the rapturous strains of that high 
anthem, " Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God even his Father ; to 
him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
Amen." 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION* 

At the close of the solemn service in which it 
has been your privilege at this time to engage, per- 
mit me, my friends, to address to you a few exhor- 
tations, suited to the circumstances in which you 
are placed. 

And first, let me observe, that if there be any in 
this assembly who have not only withheld them- 
selves from the Lord's table on the present occa- 
sion, but are habitually chargeable with such ne- 

* Addressed to the congregation of St. George's Church, Edin- 
burgh, after the celebration of the Lord's Supper, 10th May 1829. 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 53 

gleet, they are surely the objects of deep commise- 
ration. I speak not of those who are kept back by 
conscientious motives — who really desire to engage 
in the work of solemn communion, but abstain 
from it because they are, in their own considerate 
judgment, undeserving of such a high privilege. 
To persons of this description I would feel, and 
exercise, all manner of Christian forbearance and 
kindness. I approve of their delicacy of con- 
science and their humility of spirit. I would, at 
the same time, direct them to cherish more engaging 
views of their Saviour's love ; and not to consider 
the lowliest convictions of their own unworthiness 
as, in any measure, inconsistent with the liveliest 
dependence upon his merits. I would encourage 
them to regard the ordinance as intended for weak 
and timid "babes," as much as for "perfect men in 
Christ Jesus." I would hope that, by persevering 
in prayer, and by following on to know the Lord, 
and by setting themselves to acquire more correct 
and scriptural views both of the nature of the insti- 
tution and of the character of its Author, they will 
ere long feel themselves at liberty to observe it 
without any slavish dread of offending God, or of 
sinning against their own souls. And I would only 
caution them against yielding to those groundless 
and superstitious scruples, that sometimes tempt the 
believing and the good, to shrink from a service in 
which they are called to honour their Redeemer, 
to partake of the richest blessings of the gospel, 
and to advance the interests of pure and undefilecl 



54 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION- 



religion in the world. At present, however, I al- 
lude to those who have no cordial wish to be com- 
municants — who do not think of aspiring to the 
duties and the privileges of that character — who al- 
low every successive opportunity of going to the 
Lord's table to pass away from them unimproved 
and unheeded — and who continue in this negligence 
from year to year, through indifference, or con- 
tempt, or worldly-mindedness, or practical infidel- 
ity. It is of these that I now speak ; and every 
real Christian will unite with me in saying, that 
they are objects of deep commiseration. They are 
living in obstinate disobedience to the express and 
dying commandment of him, who has "all power in 
heaven and on earth." They are callous to the im- 
pressions of that ineffable love which he manifested 
in dying for their eternal redemption. They reject 
with disdain the means which divine wisdom has 
appointed for supporting the life, and promoting 
the nourishment and comfort, of his church. They 
proclaim their want of those principles and disposi- 
tions to which the promises of glory are annexed, 
and their hostility to that system of grace by which 
alone they can be delivered from the wrath to come. 
And, if there be any truth in Christianity, they are 
yet in their sins— "without God and without hope." 
O ye to whom this melancholy description applies, 
blame us not when we declare, that you are the ob- 
jects of our pity. It is not from any sentiment of 
proud scorn, or of haughty superiority, that we say 
this. We feel compassion for your state, because 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 55 

we see you despising* the great salvation — far from 
the kingdom of heaven — and walking in the broad 
way that leadeth to destruction. We would pray 
for you — that the Spirit of all grace may enlighten 
your mind, and subdue the perversity of your will, 
and bring you under subjection to the righteous- 
ness and the law of Christ. We would beseech 
you to stop short in your career of thoughtlessness 
and folly — to reflect seriously on what is past, and 
to think solemnly of what is to come — and to mind 
the things which belong to your peace, before they 
be for ever hid from your eyes. And we would 
hold up to view the ordinance you have been dis- 
regarding, as exhibiting, in the death and media- 
tion of Christ, the only way by which you can re^ 
turn to God, and obtain eternal life ; and as de- 
nouncing, at the same time, through the sorrows 
and ignominies of the cross, that awful retribution 
which awaits those who reject the salvation of the 
gospel, and will not have Christ to rule over them. 

But we fear that, even to some who have been at 
the Lord's table, we must speak the language of 
warning and rebuke. It is refreshing, indeed, to 
see such a goodly number, as we have seen this day, 
setting at defiance the scorn of unbelieving men, 
and keeping in remembrance the death and the 
cross of their Redeemer. Yet we know that "all 
are not Israel who are of Israel" — that the profes- 
sion of Christianity and Christianity itself are far 
from being inseparably connected — that not every 
one who says unto Jesus, however publicly and 



56 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 



however solemnly, " Lord, Lord," shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. I would therefore speak 
to you in the spirit and in the language of a whole- 
some and affectionate jealousy. I would ask you, 
from what motives, and in what manner, you have 
engaged in the work of sacred communion ? Have 
you done it, in mere compliance with the wishes of 
your friends, or from mere conformity to the cus- 
tom of the place ? Have you done it that you 
might acquire, or that you might support, a good 
reputation in the world ? Have you done it in or- 
der to conceal from the eye of suspicion and obser- 
vation some defect or some sin that you wish not 
to be known ? Or have you done it with the un- 
scriptural view of atoning for your past wickedness, 
and laying up a stock of merit for the time to come ? 
Have you made no preparation for the solemnity 
in which you have been engaged ? Have you en- 
tered into no previous examination of your heart, 
and your character, and your spiritual state ? Have 
you come to the Lord's table with thoughtlessness 
and indifference ? Have you sat down in ignorance 
of the nature and purposes of the institution ? Have 
you showed forth the death of Christ, without any 
lively faith in his merits — without any cordial hatred 
of sin, which caused his sufferings — without any de- 
cided resolution to forsake the iniquities from which 
they were endured to redeem you — without any 
conscious love to your God and Saviour — without 
any kind and forgiving affection towards your fel- 
low-men — without any purpose of devoting your- 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 57 

• selves to the service and glory of him who has done 
so much for your salvation ? Have your imagina- 
tions been allowed to wander on the mountains of 
vanity, and your affections to settle on the pursuits 
and pleasures of the world, when they should have 
been raised to the heaven, and stretched forward 
to the immortality, to which the doctrine of a com- 
munion-service naturally taught you to aspire ? 
Are these the motives which have influenced you, 
and is this the manner in which you have acted on 
the present occasion ? Then you have not partaken 
of the Lord's Supper in a true and spiritual sense. 
You have been " eating and drinking unworthily " 
You have profaned the body and the blood of Christ. 
And though God may not inflict upon you visible 
judgments, as he did on the Corinthian church, yet, 
as the God of ordinances, and as a jealous God, 
he will not permit you to be thus hypocritical or 
profane with impunity, and he will assuredly pu- 
nish you for it, except you repent. " Repent, there- 
fore, and be converted, that this your great sin may 
be blotted out." Apply for pardon, through faith 
in that sacrifice, which you have treated with so 
much levity and contempt. Beseech God to cleanse 
you from every carnal view, and to give you all the 
graces of his spirit. And be resolved that, hence- 
forth, every returning communion, which you may 
be permitted to see, shall find you ready to partake 
of it with clean hands, and pure hearts, and earnest 
desires to be " found of God in peace, without spot 
and blameless." 

2 



58 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

On the other hand, does your conscience tell you 
that your motives have been good — that you have 
come to the Lord's table from regard to the com- 
mandment of Christ — from gratitude and love to 
him as your Redeemer — from a desire to promote 
the honour of his name and the interests of his gos- 
pel — and from a becoming wish to advance your 
own spiritual comfort and improvement ? Did you 
examine yourselves as to your fitness for the com- 
munion service ? and did you find that you were 
possessed, in some good measure, of those qualifi- 
cations which the nature of the ordinance and the 
word of God prescribe ? And when engaged in 
the work of commemoration, were your hearts 
affected by a sense of its importance and solemnity ? 
Did you hold communion with the Father, and fel- 
lowship with his Son Jesus Christ ? Were you in 
the exercise of lively faith — of pious affection — of 
brotherly love — of holy desires and resolutions ? 
And was it your earnest prayer, and your earnest 
endeavour, that you might glorify him whom you 
were remembering, and that the homage and de- 
votion of your souls might be accepted, and that 
you might give yourselves away to God in a cove- 
nant never to be broken, and never to be forgot- 
ten ? 

I do not ask you, my friends, if, in all those re- 
spects, you have done nothing amiss — if you can say 
that your way has been perfect — if you can look 
back, with unalloyed complacency and satisfaction, 

upon every part of your conduct and experience 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION/ 59 



as communicants ? No, my friends ; the best of us 
must be conscious that imperfection and sin have 
tarnished the purity of our offering". And we all 
need to humble ourselves before the holy God 
whom we have been serving, and to apply for the 
pardoning efficacy and the sanctifying influences of 
the blood of Christ. And, may " the good Lord 
pardon every one who has prepared his heart to 
seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he 
has not been cleansed according to the preparation 
of the sanctuary." But have you been sincere in 
your desires to "do this in remembrance of Christ?" 
Have you been really anxious to " keep the feast 
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth ?" 
Have you set yourselves to act from suitable mo- 
tives, and in a becoming manner ? And are you 
conscious that, with regard to the particulars I have 
mentioned, you were qualified, in some good mea- 
sure, to partake of the ordinance, and that, in some 
good measure, your participation of it has come up 
to the standard of Christian feeling and of Chris- 
tian attainment? Then, be grateful to God who 
has not only admitted you to the privilege of holy 
communion, but has enabled you cheerfully to em- 
brace, and rightly to enjoy it. Be grateful that, in- 
stead of keeping away, like many others, under the 
influence of mistaken views, or of dislike to spirit- 
ual exercises, he has put it into your hearts to give 
this public testimony to the truth, and the power, 
and the excellence of the gospel. Be grateful that 
amidst the trials and the sorrows of life, you have 



60 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 



been allowed to draw, from a believing contempla- 
tion of the memorials of your Redeemer's death, 
that support and consolation which it is so well cal- 
culated to afford. Be grateful that, through the 
grace given you, you have been strengthened to 
discharge an important duty, and encouraged to em- 
ploy an instituted means of edification ; and that in 
the fidelity with which you have acted, and in the 
comfort which you have experienced, you have a 
gratifying token of your present acceptance with 
God, and of your future progress in the divine 
life. 

But do not rest satisfied with mere emotions, or 
with the mere expressions of thanksgiving. You 
must show your gratitude in your conduct ; and 
maintain a life and conversation suitable to the pro- 
fession you have made, and the privileges you 
have enjoyed. It is not ordinary decency of 
behaviour nor ordinary acquirements in religion 
that will answer the purpose. The obligations 
laid upon you by your appearance at the Lord's 
table, dictate a deportment distinguished by its 
purity, and its excellence. And, if you obey them 
in any tolerable degree, we shall see you adorned 
with all the graces and virtues of Christianity, 
abounding in godliness and good works, and advanc- 
ing with steady and progressive steps in the path of 
righteousness. After having seen such a lively re- 
presentation of the evil of sin, will not sin be more 
than ever the object of your aversion, and will 
not you more than ever strive to keep yourselves 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 61 



from its pollutions ? After having admired the 
greatness of your Saviour's compassion in giving 
his life a ransom for your souls, will not you feel 
yourselves peculiarly and powerfully constrained 
to glorify him in your bodies and in your spirits 
which are his ; and will not you think every act of 
obedience which you can render, but an inadequate 
return for that wondrous love which made him die 
for you upon the cross ? After perceiving that it 
was one great purpose of those sufferings of his, 
which you have been commemorating, to deliver you 
from iniquity, and to call you to holiness, will not 
you cheerfully surrender yourselves to the design 
which they had in view, by denying all ungodli- 
ness and worldly lusts, and by living soberly, right-, 
eously, and godly, in the world ? After having 
professed, with so much solemnity, that you are his 
disciples, will not you be careful to justify this pro- 
fession, by devotedness to him in every department 
of his gospel — by steadily adhering to his doctrine — 
by confessing him openly before men — by relying 
without disguise on the merits of his cross — by a con- 
scientious submission to his will — and by a faithful 
imitation of his example ? And after having de- 
clared that you are expectants of heaven, and that 
you look, with hope and joy, for the second coming 
of your Lord, will not you be anxious to cultivate 
the character which such anticipations demand, by 
rising superior to the pleasures and allurements of 
this present evil world, by renouncing all the pur- 
suits which are inconsistent with your eternal pros- 



62 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

pects, and by acquiring and cherishing these holy 
habits, both of mind and conduct, which are requi- 
site to fit you for the bliss of immortality ? O my 
friends, you can never be too scrupulous in abstain- 
ing from sinful indulgence ; you can never be too 
diligent in the performance of duty ; you can never 
be too much devoted to that work, which consists 
in obedience to the law of God, and in preparation 
for the glories of his presence. Be persuaded, then, 
to give yourselves wholly to these things. Reduce 
your principles uniformly into practice. And shew 
that you have been with Jesus, by your unreserved 
conformity to his will, and by carrying your Chris- 
tian principles into all the various scenes, and circum- 
stances, and relations, of life. This is necessary for 
your own personal welfare ; and it is also necessary 
for promoting the interests of pure and undefiled re- 
ligion among your fellow-men. Your character is 
not complete, it is radically defective, unless you be 
" holy in all manner of conversation." And, if you 
are seen forgetting your communion vows, and vio- 
lating the precepts of the gospel, and conforming 
to the practices and the maxims of ungodly men, 
you not only expose yourselves to just derision and 
contempt, but you bring dishonour on the cross of 
Christ ; you prove a stumbling-block to the young 
and the wavering ; you mislead many by your ex- 
ample, whom your instructions can never reach; and 
you tempt "them that are without" to "blaspheme 
that holy name by which you have been called." 
And, if your conduct be thus wanting in itself, and 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 63 

thus pernicious in its effects, O how will you an- 
swer for it, on the great day of the Lord ! Let me 
conjure you, then, to "walk worthy of the vocation 
wherewith you are called/' Let it be the object of 
your constant ambition, and let it be the subject of 
your daily prayer, that you may be kept from the 
paths of iniquity, that you may set God continually 
before you, and that you may " stand perfect and 
complete in all his holy will." 

And let me especially press this exhortation upon 
those who have for the first time presented them- 
selves before the Lord at a communion table. I 
congratulate you, my young friends, on your taking 
this step, so important to yourselves, and so inte- 
resting to all who love your souls. I am glad that 
you have thus openly enlisted under the banner of 
the cross- — that you have renounced, in this public 
manner, the devil, the world, and the flesh — that 
you have been seen taking up the pilgrim's staff, 
and settings your faces Zion-ward. And I trust 
that you have done all this in the sincerity of your 
hearts — that you are not acting an inconsiderate or a 
hypocritical part — that the "good confession which 
you have witnessed before many witnesses" has come 
from an approving mind — and that you are indeed 
desirous and determined to be all that your outward 
service has promised. It remains for you to vindi- 
cate your own sincerity, and to maintain your own 
consistency, by the tenor of your future deport- 
ment. Never forget, then, the engagements which 
you have so solemnly contracted, but study to fulfil 



64 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

them with the utmost fidelity and care. Be not "of 
them who draw back unto perdition, but of them 
who believe to the saving of the soul." The evil 
propensities of your own wayward hearts — the al- 
lurements and vanities of a thoughtless, corrupted 
world — the sinful insinuations and wicked example 
of unchristian people — and the arts and influence 
of your spiritual enemies, who operate upon your 
minds, though unseen — all these will attempt to 
draw you away from the allegiance you have sworn, 
and from the resolutions you have formed. But in 
the strength of God you must resist them all ; and, 
whatever sacrifices it may cost you, and with what- 
ever difficulties it may be attended, you must keep 
your confidence in Jesus steadfast unto the end — 
you must hold fast your integrity, and never let it 
go — you must persevere, with unshaken constancy, 
in the path of duty and obedience. Recollect, at 
every step you take in life, that you are not your 
own — that you have given yourselves up to God — 
and that you are bound, by the strongest and most 
endearing ties, to " glorify him in your bodies and 
spirits, which are his." Read his blessed word, that 
you may grow in saving knowledge. " Remember 
his sabbaths to keep them holy." Never " forsake 
the assembling of yourselves together" in his sacred 
courts. Pray to him " with all prayer and supplica- 
tion in the spirit." Avoid the company of such as 
trample on his authority and despise his ordinances; 
and associate with those who fear his name and keep 
his commandments. When the allurements of the 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 6-5 

world solicit your affections or your conformity* 
cast a believing recollection back upon the cross of 
Christ, and an eye of hope forward to the joys of 
heaven, and scorn the pleasures which would frus^ 
trate the purposes of your Saviour's death, or darken 
your anticipations of future glory. And when any 
peculiar temptation occurs, or when the impetuosi^ 
ty of youthful passion begins to break forth, or when 
the ridicule of unbelieving or ungodly men is threat- 
ening to conquer your holy purposes, then lift up 
your soul to the God of all grace, and ery for the 
help of his almighty arm : call to remembrance the 
vows and resolutions, the faith and the comforts, of 
a communion table ; and forget not that death is 
fast approaching, and may come when you are not 
aware, to deliver you from the trials which now 
distress you, and to conduct you to that land of upt 
Tightness and of rest, where no sin is committed 
and where no sorrow is felt, and where there is 
fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. 

Yes, my friends, death is approaching to all of 
us. And it becomes all of us to watch and to be 
ready. Before another communion arrive, some of 
us, it is probable, shall have bidden an everlasting 
adieu to this land of ordinances and of probation. 
Which of us it is to whom the summons shall be 
sent, we cannot tell. It may be the youngest, and 
the stoutest, and the most thoughtless, of us all. O 
then, how deeply should our minds be impressed 
with the shortness and uncertainty of time ; and 
with what diligence should we apply ourselves to 

F 



66 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

the work that is given us to do ! Let none of us 
be idle or unconcerned. Let none of us delay or 
trifle with preparation for eternity. Let none of 
us be so foolish as to put our immortal interests to 
the hazard of an unexpected call. Rather let us be 
active, and faithful, and unremitting, in the service 
of him to whom we are to render an account. And 
when we leave the house and table of the Lord, let 
our first step be the beginning of a more holy and 
heavenly course than that which we have hitherto 
pursued ; so that, living always by faith in the Son 
of God, and abounding always in the duties of our 
Christian vocation, at whatever day or at whatever 
hour our Master call us away, we may receive 
from him this gladdening sentence, " Well done, 
good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of 
your Lord." 



SERMON IIL* 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 

psalm lxxxix. 15. 
" Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound." 

The joyful sound here mentioned primarily refers 
to the blowing of the silver trumpets, on certain 
festivals, by the sons of Aaron — an institution which 
God appointed for the purpose of reminding the Is- 
raelites of their being under the continued care and 
protection of him, who had brought them out of the 
land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. 
Considering the hardships, and dangers, and suffer- 
ings they had to encounter in the wilderness, this 
ceremony was calculated to give them consolation 
and encouragement during their pilgrimage towards 
the promised land. And even, after they were 
fully established in the privileges for which they 

* Preached in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, on the evening of 
Sabbath, 16th May 1830, for the Edinburgh Continental Society. 



68 



THE JOYFUL SOUND* 



SER. S. 



were destined in the counsels of Heaven, it had the 
effect of reviving and strengthening the impression, 
that they were safe under the guardianship of that 
Being who had originally delivered them, by whom 
they had been hitherto guided and defended, and 
whose promise of unfailing regard was as faithful, 
as his mercy was abundant, and his power omnipo- 
tent. 

The Mosaic economy is at an end : its peculiar 
ceremonies are abrogated : of its symbols of a pre- 
sent and superintending Divinity, not one is left j 
and the sound of the silver trumpets is heard no 
more. But as ancient Israel is commonly account- 
ed and held out in Scripture as typical of true be- 
lievers under the new dispensation, so particular 
appointments in the former may, without any vio- 
lation of propriety, and with manifest advantage as 
to instruction and illustration, be considered as 
representing those features in the latter with which 
they are found to correspond. And, when we think 
of what the gospel is, and of the circumstances in 
which it finds us, and of the benefits which we de- 
rive from it, we are not putting a forced interpreta- 
tion upon our text, when we take the "joyful sound" 
to mean the message of the gospel, and the decla- 
ration of the Psalmist to refer to the happiness of 
all those by whom that message is known, accord- 
ing to its own import and purpose, and according 
to the will and intention of its gracious Author. 

It is in this view that we propose to make the 
declaration contained in these words, " Blessed is 



SEIt. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



69 



the people that know the joyful sound," the subject 
of our remarks and meditations. 

We need not occupy your time at present in 
shewing that blessedness is essentially connected 
with the gospel. The gospel is intended to make 
us blessed, because He, in whose will it has origi- 
nated, is full of compassion, and announces that here 
his compassion has had its richest and most deter- 
minate exercise. It is fitted to make us blessed ; 
for the same God, whose compassion prompted it, 
has also contrived all its arrangements and opera- 
tions, and the infinite wisdom which belongs to 
him must have so adapted the means to the end, as 
effectually to secure whatsoever it designs. It is 
sure to make us blessed ; its machinery being moved, 
and its effects being produced, by the power to 
which all opposition is feeble, and before which all 
difficulties vanish away. And it is known to make 
us blessed ; for we have only to appeal to the ex- 
perience of the church in every successive age, and 
in every variety of its features, in proof of the fact, 
that the gospel has done for its disciples what no- 
thing else has been able to accomplish — has put a 
joy into their hearts, and shed a brightness over 
their prospects, beyond all that worldly minds have 
experienced or conceived. And, with respect to 
such of you now hearing me, as have been mad« 
glad by deliverance from the evils and the fears of 
sin, and by restoration to divine favour and to hea- 
venly hope, were I to ask you, to what source you 
trace all this happiness, there is not one of you who 



70 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



would not instantaneously lay his hand upon the 
gospel, and say, * ' It is this, and this alone, which 
has made me what I am — which has converted my 
troubles into peace, and, in the midst of all my ca- 
lamities, has taught me to rejoice with a joy that is 
unspeakable and full of glory." 

But let us consider what is implied in " knowing 
the sound" or message of the gospel, as connected 
with the blessedness which it imparts. The dis- 
cussion may be salutary both to those who enjoy 
that blessedness, and to those who are still strang- 
ers to it. And may the Spirit of all grace render 
it effectual for edification and for comfort ! 

1. In the first place, to know the joyful sound 
implies that the gospel is communicated to us. 

When we say that the gospel must be communi- 
cated to those whom it renders blessed, we state a 
proposition which stands opposed to the opinion of 
many. These persons do not pretend to think the 
gospel useless — but still they do not think the 
knowledge of it absolutely necessary. This know- 
ledge of it they admit to be beneficial in several 
respects — but they do not admit it to be essential 
to salvation. So far otherwise, that they deem 
those from whom it has been withheld, as safe in 
their eternal interests as those are to whom it has 
been conveyed. 

Such doctrine we hold to be altogether errone- 
ous. The gospel proposes to redeem sinners from 
the burden of certain evils, and to restore them to 
the enjoyment of certain blessings. And it is re- 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



71 



presented as the only method by which it has 
pleased God that these ends should be accomplish- 
ed. At least, we do not learn from revelation, nor 
is it taught any where else, that there is another 
method, possessed of divine authority, or of suffi- 
cient virtue for working out the same great and 
important purposes. It follows, accordingly, that if 
we would obtain the deliverance and the happiness 
which are designed for us by the gospel, we are 
shut up to that system, and must not assume the 
privilege of looking beyond its confines. Every 
thing which overleaps its bounds, or supersedes its 
provisions, is fancy, speculation, presumption, im- 
piety. Not only is the gospel able to save us, but, 
according to the divine decree, the gospel alone can 
save us. 

Now, what is the gospel as the scheme of human 
salvation ? It is not an absolute and unconditional 
arrangement for taking away men's guilt, and re- 
instating them in their original privileges, without 
any relation to what they are or to what they do 
upon earth, and limited wholly to their judicial 
condition in the sight of God, and to their ultimate 
admission into heaven. Were that the case, a 
written communication on the subject would have 
been unnecessary ; or, a large proportion of the writ- 
ten communication actually given might have been 
spared. When we look into its pages, we do not 
find it stated, or insinuated, or even allowed to 
be inferred, that the gospel is nothing to us or to 
our fellow-men, except in so far as it contains the 



72 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3, 



fact that divine mercy has interposed in behalf of 
our apostate race, and effected for them a redemp- 
tion which leaves us no reason to doubt of their 
ultimate felicity. There is no countenance given 
in any one part of its record to such an idea. On 
the contrary, it every where proceeds on the sup- 
position, that the fact must be announced to those 
whom it concerns, in order that it may become 
practically available for their well-being-. And 
why is this annunciation requisite ? Because the 
plan of saving mercy which it unfolds, clearly em- 
braces the character, as well as the condition, of the 
sinner : it implies — it establishes — it intimates a 
connexion between the two ; and this connexion 
is so close, and of such a nature, that the condition 
of the sinner cannot become what his safety re- 
quires it to be, unless the character of the sinner is 
made to undergo a corresponding change. And 
this change cannot take place without the concur- 
rence of his will, and that movement among all 
the affections and principles of his moral frame 
which pre-supposes him to be acquainted with 
what the gospel demands of him, as well as with 
what the gospel has effected for him. For indeed, 
it is " the word of the truth of the gospel," which, 
according to the divine appointment, is to be the 
instrument of his conversion and his sanctification ; 
and it is inconceivable how the word should have 
any influence either on his understanding' or on 
his heart, unless it be first submitted to his atten- 
tion, and brought within the sphere of his observa- 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



73 



tion. It is the divinely instituted means of renew- 
ing* and purifying the sinner, of giving him that in- 
terest in the merit of the Saviour as the object of 
belief, without which there is no pardon for him 
here, and of producing in him that spiritual reno- 
vation, without which there is no heaven for him 
hereafter. And to say that without the use of 
those means, these ends may yet be attained, is to 
say that God will set aside the plan which he has 
not only devised, but even proclaimed to those for 
whose guidance it is intended, and by a miraculous 
operation more wonderful than any which he has 
ever used, will contradict and nullify that method 
of redemption which he employed numberless mi- 
racles to constitute, to reveal, and to attest for the 
benefit of mankind. 

On this single and obvious ground, then, it is 
impossible for those to whom the gospel is un- 
known, to become partakers of the specific salva- 
tion which the gospel provides and promises. This 
salvation can become the portion of such only as 
have the faith and the purity which the gospel pre- 
scribes ; the faith which unites us to Christ, who is 
the only source of spiritual blessings; and the puri- 
ty which, while it is itself one of these blessings, is 
essential to our fruition of the greatest of them, — 
eternal life. And, as no man can exercise a faith, 
and cultivate a purity, of whose object and obliga- 
tions and extent he is entirely ignorant, so his ig- 
norance of the gospel, in which alone these things 
are made known, must clearly debar him from all 



74 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



share in the benefits of that salvation, which either 
involves, or is exclusively annexed to, the faith and 
the purity that are enjoined. 

The heavenly Canaan has been purchased for 
sinful men ; but they cannot reach it under all cir- 
cumstances and by all ways. There is a certain path 
which leads to it. If they do not walk in that path, 
it must ever remain to them a strange and foreign 
land. And how can they walk in that path, unless 
they receive direction from him, whose province it 
is at once to assure them of its reality, and to guide 
them to its blessedness ? And, as the Israelites, if 
the sound of the silver trumpets had not reached 
their ears, could not possibly have profited by that 
ordinance — so the gospel cannot prove either the 
means of salvation, or a source of joy, to any of the 
children of men to whom its message is not sent, 
or upon whom its light has not arisen. Hence it is 
that we read of men " perishing for lack of know- 
ledge," — a fact which could have no occurrence in 
the history of the world, and no place in the book 
of God, if the notion were true against which I am 
contending. And hence, when the apostle Paul 
says, that " whosoever shall call upon the name of 
the Lord shall be saved," he adds, " How shall 
they call upon him in whom they have not believed? 
and how shall they believe in him of whom they 
have not heard ?" — an addition to the apostle's de- 
claration which could have no meaning, if men 
might be saved who had never heard, and therefore 
never believed. And hence the peremptory com- 



SER. 3, 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



15 



mand of our Saviour to his disciples, to "go and 
preach the gospel to every creature — christianizing 
all nations and teaching all nations," — a command 
which was quite superfluous, if the grand object of 
Christ's mission could have been attained, and guilty 
men made heirs of life and immortality, without 
being taught his religion, and without being made 
his disciples. And hence the ardent and devoted 
zeal with which those whom he ordained to the 
ministry of the gospel executed that high commis- 
sion ; the diligence with which they laboured to 
bring both Jews and Gentiles to an acquaintance 
with the truth ; the compassionate earnestness with 
which they besought them to accept the message, 
and to obey it ; the sacrifices which they cheerfully 
made, that they might promulgate those glad tid- 
ings with which their divine Master had entrusted 
them, — a course of conduct which on their part 
was altogether unaccountable and unnecessary, un- 
less they considered the eternal well-being of those 
for whom they felt and did and suffered so much, 
to be inseparably connected with their possession 
of the gospel message. 

The argument admits of a copious illustration ; 
but we need not pursue it any farther for the pur- 
pose of being convinced that we cannot be blessed, 
unless we are permitted to hear the sound of the 
gospel. 

And this view of the subject is far from being 
unimportant or useless ; for it teaches us to set 
a higher value on the privilege than we could 



76 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SEIL 3. 



ever imagine to belong to it, if we had thought 
that the gospel could have achieved all its saving 
work upon us, though we had never been made 
aware of its existence till we had experienced the 
fruit of that work in heaven ; and, of course, to 
cleave more fondly to it, to feel a deeper interest 
in it, and to cherish more suitable and influential 
sentiments respecting it, than we could possibly 
have done on any other supposition. And, then, 
while it is thus beneficial to ourselves, it leads us, 
at the same time, to take a livelier and more sym- 
pathetic concern in the spiritual welfare of our 
brethren — of those among ourselves who, though 
dwelling within the precincts of Christendom, have 
scarcely had their ears saluted with the tidings of 
salvation — and of the multitudes in heathen lands, 
whose minds are as blank and uninstructed, on that 
all-important theme, as if there were no mercy in 
the heavens, or as if no Redeemer had ever come 
into the world. It leads us to take a more serious 
and more active concern in those outcast fellow- 
creatures, who are living in the midst of thick dark- 
ness, and dying under the burden of unpardoned 
guilt ; and to put forth all our energies, and to 
improve all our opportunities, that there may be 
conveyed to them that "joyful sound," which tells 
them of the doings of God's pity towards his fallen 
offspring, and of the blessedness which he has pro- 
vided for the lowest, and most desolate, of them who 
will return to him by the way of his appointment. 
My Christian friends, let your souls rise in thanks- 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



77 



givings to that merciful Father, who has extended 
to you the blessing which, in his unsearchable pro^ 
vidence, he has denied to myriads beside. Let 
your gratitude grow warmer still, when you medi- 
tate on your own un worthiness of such a high dis- 
tinctions—such an invaluable token of God's sove- 
reign bounty — and muse on the utter hopelessness 
of your condition and of your prospects, if it had 
not been graciously vouchsafed to you. And then, 
looking beyond your own personal interests, and 
embracing in your sympathies the wretched victims 
of ignorance and guilt that people so large a portion 
of our globe, let your prayers ascend in their be- 
half to the Father of mercies, who has been so com- 
passionate to you ; and ask for them the gift of that 
revelation of grace in which you have been enabled 
to rejoice ; and be it your resolution and your pur- 
pose that you will be more zealous, more liberal, 
more devoted than ever, in your endeavours to res- 
cue sinners everywhere from the miseries of their 
apostacy, and to impart to them the means and the 
elements of true blessedness, by sending them the 
gospel, and causing them to hear its "joyful sound." 

2. In the second place, to know the joyful sound, 
implies that we attend to the gospel, and understand 
it. 

If those are wrong who think that men may be 
blessed to whom the gospel is not made known at 
all, those also are wrong who think that the mere 
circumstance of this privilege being possessed by 
them is altogether sufficient. That there are not 



78 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



a few who deceive themselves with this idea, is too 
manifest to be doubted. All that they rest upon is 
the simple fact, that God has declared himself to 
be merciful to sinners, and has contrived a plan by 
which he may consistently extend his mercy to 
them, and by which he has pledged and bound 
himself to do so. Being sure of this, they go no 
farther in their inquiries ; they have recourse to no 
other ground of satisfaction and security ; they give 
themselves no more anxiety about the matter ; and 
go on to live as if they were now quite safe, and 
must at last be quite happy. 

Unquestionably, however, the blessedness which 
they feel or anticipate, is not the blessedness pre- 
dicated in the text of those who " know the joy- 
ful sound and if that sound has put any comfort 
into their hearts, their comfort being without war- 
rant must prove vain and delusive. For, it cannot 
be thought that God has devised a scheme, and 
carried it into execution, and given it to the world 
in a written form, and afforded such statements and 
illustrations of it as we find in the inspired volume, 
without intending that those for whom it has been 
constructed, and to whom it has been transmitted, 
shall be careful to make themselves conversant not 
only with its general design, but also with its par- 
ticular import, and with its various departments, 
and its various bearings. His intention is clearly 
evinced by these things, even though there had 
been no express call upon us to take heed to what 
he has made such sacrifices to accomplish, and has 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



79 



been so kind and condescending as to communicate. 
To be content, therefore, with the bare existence of 
the gospel scheme, and to pay no regard to the 
meaning of the gospel revelation, is an act of con- 
tempt or ingratitude toward God — the slightest in- 
dications of whose will are deserving of profound 
attention, and who, in the exercise both of grace 
and authority, has made a full disclosure of what 
he has compassionately done for our guilty race. 
And what sort of blessedness can it be that stands 
connected with conduct so unworthy, and that is 
derived, as it were, from the very dispensation with 
respect to which the unworthy conduct is exhibited? 
Or how can any one rationally expect to partici- 
pate in that peculiar blessedness, in this world or 
in the next, which it is the very object of the gos- 
pel to confer, when he thus treats its divine record 
with indifference and disdain, and sets at nought 
the evident appointments of its great and merciful 
Author ? 

And moreover, we must repeat the statement, 
that the blessedness flowing from the gospel is to 
be received and enjoyed, not by chance or accord- 
ing to human fancy and caprice, but in a certain in- 
stituted way. It is not bestowed upon all indiscri- 
minately, whatever be their dispositions their prin- 
ciples or their conduct, and in whatever manner, 
or to whatever extent, or on whatever terms they 
are willing to accept it. We cannot separate it 
from that spiritual instrumentality, of which it is 
the natural or the destined result. The two things 



80 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



are indissolubly united % and the result cannot be 
obtained unless the instrumentality is made to work 
according to the will of him who formed it. There 
is a plan by which this blessedness is secured for the 
sinner, so far as to be brought within his reach ; 
and there is a plan by which it is made over to 
him as an actual and personal attainment. And as 
it could have had no reality, if the former plan had 
not been executed and fulfilled, so it can have no 
practical application, and cannot become a matter 
of experience, unless the latter plan be acquiesced 
in, and adhered to. Besides, if this plan be not 
studied and comprehended, how can any individual 
so betake himself to it, and so make use of its pro- 
visions, and so submit to its direction and influence, 
as that he may reasonably expect to derive the be- 
nefits by which it will contribute effectually to his 
safety and his happiness ? In this case, it is impos- 
sible for him to do and to become that which it, 
as an economy of grace, requires him to do and to 
become ; and therefore, it is equally impossible for 
him to receive, or to enjoy, what it promises to be- 
stow on such only as yield themselves to its re- 
quisitions. All that it proposes to effect in his na- 
ture and character — all that it prescribes as to be- 
lief, and regeneration, and prayer and obedience, 
necessarily remains a dead letter, for he neither 
knows nor understands it : and, consequently, it is 
'no less idle than it is presumptuous in him to lay a 
flattering unction to his soul, and to be gladdened 
by the gospel sound. The Israelites would neither 



SER, 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



81 



have been comforted nor animated by the sound of 
the silver trumpets, if they had not been previously 
made acquainted with its precise meaning- and 
intent ; and if they had not also considered it as 
connected with that system of divine management 
and guidance under which the Almighty had placed 
them. No more can any one rightly appropriate 
to himself the peace, and the felicity, which the 
gospel message announces, unless he perceive 
the drift of that message, and its exact bearing 
on what he is, and on what he is to do, and 
its relation to his substantial interests, as well as to 
his essential character. So long as he is not aware 
of these things, the message of the gospel is not, 
warrantably, a joyful sound to him ; and it cannot 
make him truly blessed, with whatever frequency, 
and with whatever seriousness, he may hear it. 

The same view is to be taken, and the same 
judgment formed, of those, who, though they study 
the gospel, study it on wrong principles — who 
are conversant with the scriptures which unfold 
it, but have embraced unsound and partial no- 
tions of its leading truths — who can declaim elo- 
quently, and reason ingeniously, on many parts of 
it, but who have so misapprehended, and so per- 
verted these, as to render them inadequate to the 
purpose which the Author of salvation intended 
them to subserve. We do not, by any means, assert 
that every erroneous conception of the gospel mes- 
sage is thus fatal to the joy of him who entertains 

G 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



it. Many mistakes may be committed, without 
affecting our interest in the salvation which it pro- 
claim^ or our share in the blessedness which it im- 
parts. And when these mistakes are committed in 
spite of sincere, and strenuous, and prayerful efforts 
to acquire a spiritual discernment of it, we should 
be sorry were we obliged to affix to them any se- 
vere or rigorous penalty. But while none of them 
is to be palliated or thought lightly of in any cir- 
cumstances, and while they are all to be condemned 
— if they be the consequences of wilful opposition, or 
contemptuous indifference to what God has been 
pleased to declare for the instruction of those whom 
he addresses — there are certain errors which, being 
attached to the very vitals of Christianity as a sys- 
tem of redemption, cannot be maintained and acted 
upon, without cutting up our hope and our hap- 
piness by the very roots ; and which force on us the 
conviction that these deadly effects must only be 
the surer, by their flowing from a total carelessness 
about understanding what it is of such vast impor- 
tance rightly and thoroughly to comprehend. Nu- 
merous examples of this may be adduced. 

By not sufficiently studying the gospel message, 
you may have been brought to shrink from the 
idea of Christ's divinity, and to reduce him to the 
level of a mere creature. But, if this be your view 
of the Saviour, and if you act upon it, you cannot 
be blessed ; for not only do you thus allow the 
suggestions of proud and carnal reason to lord it 
over the lessons and the dictates of revelation, but 



SEil. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



83 



you give your homage and your trust to one who, 
while he is a redeemer of your own creation, has 
no power to sustain the burden of your guilt, or to 
lead you a single step onward to glory. 

Again, by not sufficiently studying the gospel, 
you have come, perhaps, to the conclusion that, to 
be justified and reconciled to God, you must de- 
pend upon your own righteousness. Holding this 
doctrine, then, and acting upon it, you cannot be 
blessed; for the real and saving truth is, that "by 
the deeds of the law, no flesh living can be justified," 
— that the blotting out of sin is exclusively an 
achievement of the cross — and that peace with God 
is attainable only through faith in the atonement 
and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Again, by not sufficiently studying the gospel 
message, you have, it may be, formed an opinion 
that Christ is not only your righteousness, but your 
sanctification, in such a sense as to supersede the 
necessity of a personal conformity to the divine 
will. And holding such a tenet, and acting upon 
it, you cannot be blessed ; for the authentic and 
unchangeable truth is, that a renewal of the moral 
nature is indispensable — that nothing can cancel* 
our obligations to serve God with the whole heart 
— and that " without holiness no man can see the 
Lord." 

Once more, though satisfied that both Christ's 
righteousness, and your own personal righteousness 
are necessary, each of them in its own proper place, 
and for its own proper end, yet, by not sufficiently 



84 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SEIt. $. 



studying the gospel message, you may be holding 
the sentiment that to aim at a participation in the 
one, and to labour for the cultivation of the other, 
in virtue of your own independent strength, is suf- 
ficentfor ensuring your success in both objects. And, 
if this be your view, and if you act upon it, you 
cannot be blessed \ for it is a fundamental principle 
of the gospel, that " of yourselves you can do no- 
thing" — that " faith is the gift of God" — and that it is 
the agency of his spirit which creates the clean 
heart, and gives its issues in a holy life. 

It is clear then, that to know the sound of the 
gospel, so that men may be made joyful and blessed 
by it, they must have a right and adequate under- 
standing of what it is — of what it presents to them 
— of what it exacts from them— and of what it pro- 
mises to bestow upon them. 

To you, my Christian friends, to whom the gos- 
pel is precious, and who have been made blessed by 
listening to its joyful sound, the illustrations now 
given may be unnecessary, but they are unneces- 
sary to you, only because your experience has long 
since convinced you of their conclusiveness, and 
their truth. You can bear your testimony to this, 
that so long as you were ignorant of the gospel 
scheme, you were strangers to the comfort, and 
peace, and joy, with which its message is fraught 
— that these never entered your minds, till you 
saw its wise and compassionate bearing on your 
spiritual condition — and that they have been re- 
lished and augmented in proportion as you have, 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



85 



from a deeper, and more accurate, and more 
lengthened inquiry into its nature and properties, 
seen ground for admitting its wonderful adaptation 
to your circumstances, and learned from it those 
lessons, by which it is so perfectly fitted to regulate 
both your faith and your practice. And I am con- 
fident that — not merely out of reverence for its 
adorable Author, but also from a conviction that 
your blessedness must be continued and enhanced, 
by preserving and by adding to the knowledge of 
it which you have already acquired — it will be your 
business to seek after a still clearer, and still pro- 
founder, insight into its mysteries ; and to find, in 
that growing acquaintance with the unspotted and 
inexhaustible excellence by which it is pervaded, 
more abundant reason to rejoice in it, as the cove- 
nant of your peace, as the gospel of your salvation, 
as the charter of your happiness. 

And understanding the gospel message for your- 
selves, you will be anxious to convey it to others ; 
and to convey it to them, not as the theme of a 
vague speculation, or as the object of a general and 
indiscriminating belief, but in its real and distinc- 
tive characters, and as containing those instructive 
and life-giving truths which constitute its power of 
sending forth a "joyful sound," and of contributing 
to the spiritual blessedness of its votaries. Far from 
being contented with sending to them Christianity, 
and with seeing them embrace it, in any shape what- 
ever, as if its mere name were sufficient to charm 
away sin and secure salvation, you will be anxious 



86 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



that they should receive it in all its doctrinal puri- 
ty, and entertain the most correct conceptions of 
every thing within it, and concerning it, on which 
God has been pleased to disclose his will. And, 
especially, will you be desirous of representing it to 
them, and enforcing it upon them, as a system suited 
in all respects to their condition, as the guilty and 
depraved and helpless subjects of God's moral go- 
vernment — a system, in which they may behold 
man's moral distemper as a sinner, cared for and 
remedied by a Physician of unerring skill and al- 
mighty power- — a system, wherein they may behold 
the justice of God, which their trespasses had so 
greatly offended, reconciled with the mercy of God, 
which their misery so absolutely needed — a system, 
in which they may behold such a sacrifice offered, 
such a ransom paid, such a work accomplished, as 
make it consistent with all the attributes of Deity 
to rescue transgressors from death, and conduct 
them to glory — a system, in which they may behold 
a foundation for all the hopes that they need to 
build upon it, and which, the longer that they sur- 
vey its dimensions, and the more narrowly that they 
examine its materials and its structure, will approve 
itself the more to their judgment and their taste, as 
entitled to their highest admiration and their most 
unlimited confidence. 

Alas ! how many are there among us, and in the 
world around us, whom the sound of the gospel has 
reached, and by whom the profession of the gospel 
is publicly made ; but who are either indifferent as 



SER, O. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



87 



to what creed respecting* it they adopt, or strong in 
their attachment to doctrines which are equally con- 
tradictory to its announcements, and dangerous to 
man's salvation ! Let these persons be partakers of 
your spiritual sympathy and commiseration. Never 
regard their errors with apathy, or treat them with 
unconcern. Let your pity for their souls, and your 
jealousy for the truth as it is in Jesus, lead you to 
take an interest in their case, as one of serious mo- 
ment to themselves, and to the church, and to the 
world. Strive by your testimony, your counsel, 
your prayers, your employment and application of 
all competent means, to enlighten and reclaim them. 
And think not that your duty is performed, or your 
benevolence exhausted, so long as you can do any 
thing by which they may be brought to a more per- 
fect understanding of the gospel, and made to enter 
more intelligently, more feelingly, and more tho- 
roughly into the spirit of the declaration which says, 
" Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound." 

3. In the third and last place, to know the joy- 
ful sound, implies that we welcome, believe, and 
obey the gospel. 

It is very possible to hear the message of the 
gospel, and to understand its meaning, and yet to 
be destitute of the blessedness, which it is designed 
by its Author, and calculated in its own nature, to 
impart. In that case, it is the hearing of the exter- 
nal ear, and nothing else ; or it is the understand- 
ing of mere intellect, and nothing else : and if sense 
and speculation, and nothing else, be concerned in 



88 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



the regards which are paid to the gospel, or in the 
effects which it produces on those to whom it is 
addressed, I know of no authority in its own re- 
cord, and of no warrant in the reason and propriety 
of the thing itself, for feeling, or for cherishing, any 
emotions of gladness. On the contrary, that pri- 
vilege is directly discouraged — it is expressly de- 
nied — with respect to those who merely listen to 
what the gospel says to them, or merely take a 
transient and distant survey of its plan, or merely 
possess the faculty of talking and arguing and con- 
jecturing about the doctrines and statements which 
it contains. If we rest satisfied with such naked 
and superficial regards as these ; if we go no deeper 
into the subject ; if we come into no closer contact 
with it ; if we take no livelier nor more personal 
interest in it ; then we treat the gospel as of no 
substantial value ; we disallow its most obvious and 
peremptory claims ; we neglect its most important 
character ; we act towards it as if it were a system 
of mere human wisdom, or the creation of mere 
human fancy ; and thus refusing whatever is due to 
its divine excellence, and to its no less divine au- 
thority, we forego, by just and necessary conse- 
quence, whatever it proffers to us of rest and hap- 
piness. What ! my friends, can you really feel the 
blessedness derived from the gospel, when yet you 
account its message of so little moment, though it 
tells you of a great salvation wrought out for you 
by the Son of God, that you will give it no wel- 
come into your hearts, and no cherished residence 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



89 



there ? Can the sound of the gospel be verily joy- 
ful to you, when you will not meet its announce- 
ments with a humble and cordial belief, although 
these are the announcements of eternal truth — 
u faithful sayings," and therefore " worthy of all 
acceptation ?" And can the gospel fill your mind 
with gladness, or visit you with one happy emotion, 
when you withhold, at once so undutifully, and so 
ungratefully, that obedience which it not only posi- 
tively commands and affectionately entreats, but 
also most explicitly and inseparably conjoins with 
all the good which it promises to bestow ? To 
those who, in this manner, put the gospel away 
from them, or who use it as a mere exercise for 
their reason, or as the mere plaything of their ima- 
gination, it can speak no joy ; upon them it will 
confer no blessedness. 

O what numbers are there, by whom it is thus 
dishonourably treated, or practically despised ; and 
who yet seem to flatter themselves that all is well 
with their souls, who speak of their state before 
God with ease and satisfaction, and rejoice confi- 
dently in the anticipations of a better world ! Alas ! 
how blinded are they by the ignorance that is in 
them to the realities of their spiritual condition ! 
Would they but study the constitution, and give 
heed to the language, of the gospel ; would they 
but attend to the stress which it lays upon the con- 
nexion that subsists between character and privi- 
lege, between faith and peace, between holiness and 
happiness, between immortality and meetness for 



90 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



it \ v/ould they but give credit to what it declares 
concerning the demerit, and the danger, and the 
ultimate fate of such as they are — how would all 
their joy fulness vanish away as a dream of the 
night, and give place to fear and anguish and tribu- 
lation ! And how would that sound which has 
played about their ear as the sound of blessedness, 
be converted into the voice of indignation and ter- 
ror — uttered, too, by the God of all grace, but 
whose grace, as manifested and embodied in the 
gospel, has been lightly esteemed, or sadly abused, 
and who therefore speaks in the awful accents of 
insulted justice and neglected mercy ! Let sinners 
who are thus at ease in Sion, who are assured and 
happy in the midst of peril, who are rejoicing in a 
salvation which they have not yet appreciated, and 
which is not yet theirs,— let them consider these 
things, and no longer remain in the delusion with 
which they are now encompassed, and which must 
finally prove their ruin and their misery. 

Yes, my Christian brethren, these men are in- 
deed deluded ; they are not the people that know 
the joyful sound, and are blessed. If they are so, 
then the gospel is a fable, salvation is a shadow, 
and truth has forsaken the word of God. Nay, 
but they are deluded — we know they are deluded — 
grossly, grievously, fatally deluded. May the Lord 
himself deliver, and restore, and save them ! 

And be you humble, and be you thankful, that, 
instead of having your lot with them, you are, in 
very deed, of those that are blessed by having 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



91 



" known the joyful sound." Be humble, when you 
recollect and meditate on your utter unworthiness 
of such a distinguished privilege. And be thank- 
ful to Him, by whose undeserved mercy you have 
been called to the participation and enjoyment of 
it. To you it has been given to " know the joyful 
sound" — to give a cordial reception to the message 
which it brings, because it is fraught with innumer- 
able and surpassing benefits— to exercise a strongs 
and lively faith in it, because it rests upon the tes- 
timony of the true and faithful God— and to ren- 
der to it a profound and practical submission, as sanc- 
tioned by an authority which the universe obeys, 
and enforced by the manifestation of a love whose 
height and depth and breadth and length exceed 
all our powers of measurement. Thus have you 
been enabled by the power and teaching of the 
Spirit to listen to the sound of the gospel, and 
therefore to you it is a "joyful sound," it is not only 
calculated and intended to make you joyful, but 
it has actually made you joyful; as your conscious- 
ness and experience abundantly testify. And 
therefore are you blessed — not merely visited with 
gleams of passing pleasure, or with raptures which 
have their moment and die away, but inhabited by 
the peace which nothing can disturb, animated 
by the joy which nothing can take away, settled 
on the hope which already makes heaven and im- 
mortality your own. 

It is a blessed thing for a man to have all his sins 
forgiven, and thus to be rescued from the curse of 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



a broken law, and the apprehension of future 
wrath — and that blessedness is yours. It is a 
blessed thing- for an apostate alienated creature to 
be reconciled to the great Creator, and in the 
spirit of adoption to look up to him as his Father, 
to whose favour he has been graciously restored, 
and from whom he shall be estranged no more — 
and that blessedness is yours. It is a blessed thing 
to be delivered from the tyranny of unholy pas- 
sions, and from the dominion of an ungodly world, 
and to come into the glorious liberty of the moral 
nature wherewith Christ makes his people free — 
and that blessedness is yours. It is a blessed thing 
to look abroad upon the face of nature, and after 
gazing with a delighted eye on the beauties that 
adorn the earth, and on the magnificence that cover 
the heavens, to rejoice in them as the works of him 
who has called you back to the work and the privi- 
leges of his children, and to say with the glow of 
filial affection, "my Father made them all" — and that 
blessedness is yours. It is a blessed thing, amidst 
the trials, and difficulties, and distresses with which 
humanity has to struggle in this weary world, to be 
upheld by divine power, to be guided by infinite 
wisdom, to be cheered by heavenly consolations, and 
to gather righteousness and joy even from the scene 
of tribulation in which you dwell — and that blessed- 
ness is yours. It is a blessed thing to be able to con- 
template death without being subject to the bondage 
of fear, to anticipate the grave as a resting-place 
from jsin and sorrow, to lie down in its peaceful bo- 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



93 



som with the prospect of a resurrection to life and 
immortality — and that blessedness is yours. It is a 
blessed thing- when one looks forward to the judg- 
ment and to eternity which await us all, to realize 
in him who is to pronounce our doom, the Saviour 
to whom we have committed the keeping- of our 
souls, and in whose blood we are already washed 
from our sins, and to cherish the hope founded on 
his own faithful promise, that the portion assigned 
us is everlasting life — and that blessedness is yours. 
And, if in this state of darkness and imperfection, 
where our views are too often clouded, and our 
faith too often grows feeble, and the heart too 
often forgets the rock on which it has placed its 
confidence for eternity — if in these circumstances, 
it is a blessed thing to have access to those ordin- 
ances which have been appointed for refreshing 
our decayed spirits, for casting a clearer light upon 
the path of our pilgrimage, for bringing us nearer 
to the fountain of grace and comfort, and for re- 
viving and strengthening " the things that are ready 
to die" — that blessedness also is yours. 

Happy people ! thus saved by the Lord — to 
whom the joyful sound of the gospel has come, 
fraught with a meaning, and a power, and a con. 
solation, infinitely richer and more efficient than all 
that the sound of the silver trumpets conveyed to 
the children of Israel as they journeyed through 
the wilderness — and who have not only in this 
agitated and sorrowful world, the peace that pass- 
eth understanding, and the joy that is unspeakable, 

5 



94 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3- 



but are soon to enter on that state of felicity, of 
which you have here only a pledge and a foretaste, 
in which purity untainted, and bliss unalloyed, 
shall cleave to you in endless fellowship, and in 
which the fulness of your joy shall be equalled 
only by the eternity of its duration. 

And, surely, my Christian friends, you cannot but 
desire, and you cannot but endeavour, to make 
your fellow-men partakers of that blessedness with 
which you are so richly favoured, by making them 
experimentally acquainted with that message from 
which alone such blessedness can proceed. I doubt 
not you are, more or less, engaged in advancing the 
spread of the gospel. But let me urge it upon 
you not to rest satisfied with those efforts which 
seem to have no higher object, and can have 
no other effect, than that of gaining nominal prose- 
lytes, and teaching men to conclude that they have 
a right to the salvation of the gospel, merely be- 
cause they profess Christianity, and are acquainted 
with its letter, and conform to its general requisi- 
tions, though, all the while, they are destitute of its 
quickening spirit, and rebellious against its govern- 
ing authority. You know, from your own person- 
al history, that this is a vital and ruinous de- 
ception, and that the gospel must be received, and 
confided in, and submitted to, in a far different 
way, before men can be truly safe, and truly 
happy. And, therefore, as you would be wise and 
consistent, as well as compassionate, in your exer- 
tions to bring them into that blessed state, see that 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



95 



you employ those methods which will not only 
make the sound of the gospel reach their ears and 
inform their understandings, but penetrate and sub- 
due and pervade their hearts, and manifest itself 
there as a message of love, and as a message from 
God, in demonstration of the spirit and of power. 
Keep this continually in your view ; pursue it with 
steady and unceasing aim ; let it give a tone and 
the direction to all that you may do for evangeliz- 
ing the world. And, whether you propose to send 
the gospel where it is altogether unknown ; or whe- 
theryou presentitto those who have hitherto rejected 
the offer of it ; or whether you labour for its pros- 
perity with such as are satisfied with its outward 
forms, and its legal establishment ; or whether you 
study to promote its interests among individuals, or 
among communities, that have perverted its prin- 
ciples, and allowed its vitality to evaporate : let your 
great and leading purpose be, to secure its entrance 
into the sinner's inmost soul, to win for it a tri- 
umph over the whole man, to bring all upon whom 
it is made to bear, to the saving belief, and willing 
obedience, and unspeakable enjoyment, of the truth 
as it is in Jesus Christ. 

This, my friends, is characteristic of the Institu- 
tion in whose behalf I now address you. Our ob- 
ject is to increase the number of the people that are 
blessed, because they " know the joyful sound of the 
gospel." And the scene in which we carry on our 
work of faith, and labour of love, is, as you may 



96 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3. 



learn from our distinctive appellation, the Continent 
of Europe. We are not indifferent to the ignorance, 
and the error, and the sinfulness, that prevail in our 
native land : we regard these evils with sorrow and 
compassion — we rejoice in the exertions that are so 
zealously, put forth to mitigate or remove them — 
and we should deem ourselves wanting in Christian 
love, did we not individually help forward these 
exertions by our co-operation and our aid. Neither 
are we deaf to the cry for help that comes to us 
from every quarter of the heathen world : the asso- 
ciated efforts that are every where making for render- 
ing the name of Christ honourable, and his salva- 
tion precious among the Gentiles, fill us with un- 
feigned satisfaction ; and far be it from any of us 
to refuse to that cause what our opportunities en- 
able us to do, or what our circumstances enable us 
to bestow. But the population, to whose spiritual 
wants we are united and pledged to minister, 
is too interesting, and too necessitous, to be neglected 
amidst the multiplied manifestations of Christian 
and British philanthropy. What multitudes are ly- 
ing prostrate before the man of sin — the slaves of a 
domineering priesthood — shut out, upon system, 
from the fountain of divine truth — taught to build 
their confidence upon a foundation which cannot 
stand in the judgment — and involved in all the 
darkness, and fooleries, and impieties, and abomi- 
nations of a church, which God has given over to 
judicial blindness, and consigned to terrible destruc- 
tion. And even of those who have come out from 



SER. 3. 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



97 



the mystic Babylon, and taken a protest against her 
doctrines and her dominion, what a vast proportion 
have forsaken all the truth and glory of the Refor- 
mation — embraced a creed from which every thing 
is banished that makes the gospel dear to a sinner's 
heart, or honourable to a redeeming God— or sunk 
into a spiritual lethargy, in which, with a name to 
live, men are sleeping the sleep of death— or avow 
an infidelity, which tramples on all the sacredness 
of the Bible, and, under the pretext of doing ho« 
mage to its Author, gives its sublimest and most 
precious discoveries to the scorn of the profane, and 
to the laughter of the fool ! It is for the benefit of 
such degenerates, and such outcasts, and such ene- 
mies of Christianity as these, that our Society has 
been formed, and that we crave the public support. 
We send forth missionaries, fitted by their talents, 
their zeal, and their character, to preach the gospel 
of the grace of God — to lift up a testimony for the 
deity and the cross of Christ — to recal attention 
to all that is peculiar to the gospel of salvation — to 
assert the authority of those scriptures which have 
been given by divine inspiration — and to teach the 
victims of spiritual despotism, and the votaries of a 
false philosophy, and the crowd of deluded sinners 
that know not what they do, to return to the God 
whom they have forsaken, through the Saviour 
whom they have despised, and to hear, and believe, 
and obey the message of that gospel which alone 
can make them free. And though we cannot boast 
of any flattering measure of success, and bring be- 

H 



98 



THE JOYFUL SOUND. 



SER. 3, 



I 



fore you an array of converts to the truth, and speak 
of extensive awakenings, and mighty inroads on the 
territory of sin and Satan ; yet you will remember 
that we labour in a region where the darkness may 
be felt, and cultivate a soil that is hard as adamant, 
and contend with foes that struggle for error as they 
struggle for life ; and that, in spite of all these dif- 
ficulties and disadvantages, we can appeal to such 
a progress in the work of evangelization, as might 
encourage hearts less sanguine than ours, and to 
prospects of increasing good, which might animate 
the most apathetic and desponding of those who are 
engaged in illuminating a benighted world. 

My Christian friends, we solicit your countenance. 
Instead of regarding our enterprise with indifference, 
as if it were of a trifling character, or frowning upon 
it, as if it were injurious, or turning away from it, 
as if it were hopeless, we beseech you to recollect 
that it concerns the souls of immortal beings — that 
it applies to them the means of salvation which God 
himself has sanctioned — and that we have reason to 
anticipate fruit that shall be for the divine glory and 
for the happiness of men. Recollecting these 
things, we entreat you to permit us to share in that 
patronage, which you so liberally bestow on the 
schemes and the efforts of Christian benevolence. 



99 



SERMON IV. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 
2 CORINTHIANS V. 1J. 

" Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old 
things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new.'' 1 

Paul and his brethren in the ministry had, at one 
period, been influenced by secular and worldly 
views. They had felt a peculiar partiality for such 
as belonged to the privileged community of the 
Jews ; and had allowed themselves to be actuated by 
the consideration of the advantage or disadvantage 
likely to result from retaining or losing the friend- 
ship of their former associates. They had besides so 
far misunderstood the character and kingdom of 
the Messiah, as to suppose, that he came to act the 
part of a temporal prince ; and under this impres- 
sion, had not only aspired to the honours and bene- 
fits which, in that capacity, he was expected to be- 
stow, but had had their attachment to him and their 
obedience to him, more or less governed by the 
motives which these selfish views suggested. Now, 
however, they were completely rescued from the 



100 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



SER. 4. 



thraldom of such debasing errors. Their ideas of 
outward privilege, and of true religion, and of the 
mission of the Saviour, were divested of all that 
carnality by which they had been formerly corrupt- 
ed and debased. They regarded him, whose mes- 
sengers they were, as a spiritual Redeemer and a 
spiritual King ; they looked for no blessings from 
him, but what were connected with the welfare of 
the soul and with eternity. And they estimated 
others, not by external distinctions, nor by their 
power of conferring earthly good, but by the con- 
formity of their temper and deportment to the di- 
vine will, and by their having undergone that reno- 
vation of the heart and life, which is the true glory, 
and the true happiness of man. " Wherefore, hence- 
forth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we 
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now hence- 
forth know we him no more/' And so will it be, 
not merely with apostles, but with all who under- 
stand the nature, and feel the power, and partake 
of the salvation of the gospel. " For if any man 
be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are 
passed away ; behold, all things are become new." 

1. In the first place, the text intimates, that a 
great moral change in the sinner is necessary. This 
is evident from the state in which man is every 
where found, and in which the Bible uniformly 
represents him to be. He is in a state, not mere- 
ly of guilt and condemnation, which requires for 
him the exercise of pardoning mercy, that he may 
not be for ever miserable ; but also of depravity 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



10L 



and corruption, from which he must be rescued, 
otherwise he can never attain to the true honour 
of his nature, or enjoy communion with God 
upon earth, or become a partaker of the happi- 
ness that is in heaven. Nothing is more obvi- 
ous to every intelligent observer, and nothing is 
more plainly taught in revelation, than that he is a 
fallen creature ; and that one effect of his fall, is to 
be discovered in his want of original righteousness, 
his disinclination to obey the divine will, and his 
aptness to indulge in unholy pursuits and unholy 
pleasures. Even when placed in the most favoura- 
ble circumstances, with every motive to do what is 
good, and every facility for avoiding what is evil, 
how perversely does he choose to gratify his pas- 
sions and appetites, rather than submit them to the 
control of God's law ; how easily and willingly 
does he become a prey to those temptations by 
which he is assailed ; and how frequently does he 
prefer vice to virtue, in spite of all the restraints 
that worldly, as well as higher considerations, im- 
pose upon his conduct ! The wicked habits he 
forms by such a course of transgression, clearly and 
unquestionably demand a change ; because as long 
as they prevail over him, he cannot reach either 
the glory or the felicity, to which he was primarily 
destined, and to which it is the great object of 
Christianity to restore him. But, independently of 
these habits, which have so obtained the mastery 
over him as to incapacitate him for pure and celes- 
tial enjoyment, and which must therefore be eradi- 
cated and made to give place to habits of an oppo- 



102 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



SER. 4. 



site description, the very dispositions in which they 
originate, the inherent propensities which have pro- 
duced and nourished them, are such, that they must 
undergo an alterative process, before the individual 
who owns them can be either truly holy, or trujy 
blessed ; or, in other words, be invested with that 
character which he lost by the apostacy of the first 
Adam, and which he is to regain by the interposi- 
tion of the second. Nay, though we should see in 
him none of those deeds of impiety, or licentious- 
ness, into which it is the natural tendency of all 
men to fall ; and though we should trace none of 
that decided bias to sinful gratification, which, 
nevertheless, lurks in every human breast ; though 
we should witness many amiable feelings at work, 
and many actions that are equally useful and praise- 
worthy ; still, it will not be difficult in all this, to 
perceive the absence of that principle, without 
which the strictest and most literal performance of 
duty, is nothing better than ungodliness — the prin- 
ciple, I mean, which recognises the authority of 
God, and, in the absence of which, there can be 
nothing good or acceptable in his sight. And 
here too, he must be changed so far as to have 
this great fundamental principle implanted and 
established in him, instead of that mere constitu- 
tional amiableness, or that mere worldly virtue, 
which bears the semblance, but has none of the 
reality, and none of the truth of true holiness ; and 
which, much as it may be esteemed by short sighted 
mortals, has no value in the regard of Him, whose 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



103 



approbation is the only standard of moral excellence, 
and the only fountain of spiritual blessedness. 

In these respects, and for these reasons, there must 
be a great moral change effected, in every man to 
whose salvation the gospel is ultimately available. 
This we cannot doubt, when we look to the con- 
dition from which it proposes to deliver him, as 
contrasted with that to which it proposes to bring 
him — the character which it ascribes to him in 
his natural state, as compared with the character in 
which it clothes him after he is subjected to divine 
influence. The scriptures speak of it, indeed, in 
plain and emphatic terms, refer to it frequently 
as of peculiar moment, and proceed upon it as an 
essential truth. Nor do they mention it as some- 
thing which must pass upon persons of a particular 
temperament of mind, or of a particular descrip- 
tion of character, and from which all others may 
consider themselves as exempted ; but as that 
which is indispensable for every individual of the 
human race, as that, in short, which is commen- 
surate with the extent of the fall and with the pre- 
valence of sin. But, indeed, that the change we 
speak of is more or less necessary for every one, 
is generally admitted ; the error which prevails re- 
specting it, has reference chiefly to its nature and 
degree. It is allowed that every one must be 
changed in some respect or other. This one we 
are told, must get rid of a certain vicious propensi- 
ty ; and that one must renounce a certain vicious 
practice. And, when the reformation specified has 



104 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION, 



SER. 4, 



actually taken place, the very language of our text 
is employed to describe the change, and the person 
by whom it has been experienced is denominated 
" a new creature." Now all this arises from having 
very inadequate notions of man's state by nature, of 
that which he is required to become, and of the doc- 
trine of the Bible, as to the important change in 
question. And therefore we remark, 

c 2. In the second place, that the moral change 
which every sinner must undergo, is comprehen- 
sive, thorough, and pervading. 

Those imperfect views of it, to which I have ad- 
verted, are so contradictory to every thing that we 
are taught in the Bible, and indeed, so much at 
variance with what we may gather from the his- 
tory and appearances of human nature, as it is every 
where exhibited in the world, in relation to what 
it ought to be both as to purity and enjoyment, 
that we can impute them to nothing so much as to 
that spiritual blindness — that obduracy of heart — 
that very love of sin, and aversion to goodness, 
which make the change we speak of so requisite, 
and which may be regarded as an additional proof and 
illustration of its necessity. Look into the inspired 
volume, and see the account which it gives of man 
as a fallen being ; and having pondered upon that, 
judge whether the change can be either partial or 
superficial, which terminates in a character so ab- 
horrent of what is base, and so distinguished by 
" whatsoever is true, and pure, and lovely, and of 
good report," as is the character of the real Chris- 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



105 



tian. Nothing can be more degenerate than the 
one ; nothing more perfect in its principles, or 
more exalted in its tendencies and aspirations, than 
the other. There cannot be a greater contrariety 
between two things, than between the soul that is 
alienated in all its affections and operations, from 
him who is " glorious in holiness," and the soul 
whose every feeling, and faculty, and movement 
are so consecrated to that great Being, as to render 
it like unto himself. 

Again, consider the similitudes by which the 
scriptures express, not merely the reality, but the 
greatness, of this change. It is represented as the 
" coming out of a darkness" so gross, that the sin- 
ner, while in it, can scarcely discern right from 
wrong, and cannot walk a step in the path of accep- 
table obedience — into " a light" that is clear and 
" marvellous," that points out all his way to heaven, 
and that, 6 6 shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." It is represented as " a resurrection" from 
the dead ; from a state in which all the sinner's 
powers and susceptibilities are dead to God, 
buried in the grave of corruption, and incapable 
of one holy effort, or of a single becoming emo- 
tion — to a state in which he becomes alive to 
all that is great and good, rises from the tomb 
where he lay amidst rottenness and impurity, throws 
off the fetters which enchained his faculties, is ani- 
mated with the love of righteousness, and walks 
abroad refreshed by the breath of heaven, and ex- 
ulting in the bliss of a new-born existence. It is 



106 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



SER. 4. 



represented as a new birth; in which the defects and 
deformities of the Christian's former self are not al- 
lowed to have any place ; by which he enters into a 
new world, and begins a new course ; and from which 
his regenerated nature, though commencing with 
the weakness of infancy, will grow up to the vigour 
and stature and measure of a perfect man. And in 
my text, it is represented as a fresh creation — inti- 
mating thereby, that the elements of the Christian's 
moral nature are modelled and organized anew — 
that, from every department of his being, there 
is excluded whatever had formerly defaced its 
beauty, or deranged its structure, or perverted its 
use — that the whole man is framed agreeably to the 
will of the great creator, consecrated to his service, 
and honoured with his residence. All these repre- 
sentations demonstrate the vastness and complete- 
ness of the change that is wrought in the sinner, 
when he is converted to God ; and must prevent 
every considerate person from thinking lightly of 
it, as if it could be easily made, or required few 
sacrifices, or demanded no great anxiety about 
its accomplishment. They show such a total re- 
volution of character to be necessary, as proves that 
a great proportion of those who flatter themselves 
that they have undergone it, are really cherishing 
a delusion, which, in the end, must prove as ruinous 
as it is vain ; and they warn us all to take heed to 
ourselves, and not to be satisfied, as we are too apt 
to be, with mere appearances — with partial symp- 
toms—with outward and compromising amend- 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



107 



merits — with any thing, in short, that does not go 
to the very root of the matter, and give evidence 
that whatsoever constitutes man a moral and ac- 
countable being has been so transformed as to 
make us willingly subject to the Father of our 
spirits. 

In his Epistle to the Ephesians, (iv. 22.) the 
Apostle Paul gives a short, but comprehensive des- 
cription of this process, from which you may learn 
what is implied in becoming a new creature. 
" That ye put off, concerning the former conver- 
sation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to 
the deceitful lusts ; and be renewed in the spirit 
of your minds ; and that ye put on the new man, 
which, after God, is created in righteousness and 
true holiness." In these words, there is set before 
you, by means of a strong figure, the transition you 
are to make, the character you are to renounce, and 
that which in its stead you are to embrace and cultivate. 
You are to ' ' put off as respects your former con- 
versation," or the conduct which you maintained 
when you were heathen or unregenerate, " the 
old man" — the vicious nature, from which that 
conduct proceeded, and which is so essentially and 
wholly corrupted as to be full of the inordinate 
desires that deceive those who yield to them, and 
drown them in perdition, by leading to all manner 
of sinful indulgence — you must put off this deprav- 
ed nature, as you would throw away a garment 
which is polluted, torn, disgraceful, aud useless. 
And so thorough must this renunciation of " the 



108 SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. SER. 4. 

old man" be, that you must be " renewed in the 
spirit of your mind ;" you must be not reformed 
merely, but " renewed you must be renewed 
not merely in external manners, but " in your 
mind ;" and you must be renewed not simply in 
the general disposition of your mind, but in its 
very " spirit'' — in that which gives the tone to 
your whole temper, and goes forth with its practi- 
cal influences into the whole ten our of your de- 
portment; and which, according as it is good or bad, 
will render you an object either of sore displeasure 
or of kind regard to him who is your ruler and 
your judge : And having renounced the old man 
— those pursuits and pleasures in which you for- 
merly delighted ; and having been made new in your 
inmost heart, and in all the springs of action, you 
must " put on the new man" — you must maintain 
and cultivate that character " which, after God" 
—in obedience to his will, in conformity to his 
example, in furtherance of his glory, and in the 
exercise of his grace, " is created" or formed, so as to 
exhibit the various excellencies which are compris- 
ed " in righteousness and true holiness" — the holi- 
ness which consists in obedience to the will of God, 
under the operation of those principles and motives 
which are prescribed in the word of God. You 
must " put on this new man," as you would put 
on a garment which will cover your whole person ; 
a garment so beautiful as to please the eye of him 
whom it is your privilege to serve upon earth, and so 
becoming and sufficient as to fit you for sitting 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



109 



down at that divine feast which he has prepared for 
you in heaven. 

The magnitude of the change implied in the sin- 
ner becoming " a new creature" may also be in- 
ferred, from the nature of the agency by which it is 
effected. The reformations and amendments of 
character, with which so many are ready to be sa- 
tisfied as all that God requires of them, need no 
extraordinary means to bring them about, It is 
generally enough for that purpose, merely to yield 
to the power of a worldly or selfish motive — to 
give up one secular advantage in exchange for an- 
other — to check a propensity, or renounce an indul- 
gence, which was injuring our earthly prospects 
and encroaching on our own scheme of earthly 
happiness — and thus to be all the while retaining 
the objects of our original attachments, and only 
varying the mode of gratifying our corrupt desires. 
The intemperate man may become sober, only to 
economise his substance and spare his health, which 
he may devote to indulgences not one whit more 
innocent than those he has forsaken. The dishon- 
est man may cease from fraud and robbery, merely 
that he may escape punishment from men, and be 
free to engage in other practices, in which he as 
little acknowledges the divine authority, or the 
welfare of his fellow-creatures. And the openly 
profane and irreligious may desist from taking 
God's name in vain, and no longer neglect God's 
ordinances, that, by this means, he may acquire a 
reputation for piety, and commit, under the hypo- 



110 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



SER. 4. 



crite's guise, what he found it unsafe, or inconveni- 
ent to commit in the eye of the world. But in all 
these, and in all similar cases, there is not even an 
approximation to the self-denial and the unreserved 
devotedness of " the new creature ;" the ungodli- 
ness of the fallen nature remains uncorrected and 
unsubdued ; it runs merely in other channels 
and displays itself in other forms ; and " the old 
man" is as powerful and as rampant as ever. But 
when the sinner becomes " a new creature," his 
love and his hatred are inverted ; what he once 
loved he now hates, and what he once hated he 
now loves. His decided and paramount inclination 
is to serve, to obey, and to glorify God, instead of 
surrendering himself to the world and to sin. His 
" delight is in the law of the Lord after the inward 
man," and on that law he meditates with unfeigned 
satisfaction — " esteeming all its commandments con- 
cerning all things to be right." There is implanted 
in him such a hatred of sin that he loathes it in all 
its aspects, renounces all the habits in which it had 
predominated, and abstains from all the indulgences 
to which it had allured him ; and in short it becomes 
the ruling desire of his heart, and the unceasing 
pursuit of his life, that he may be " perfect as a man 
of God, and thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 

And the change which all this implies, is such 
as to baffle every effort of his own independent 
power : before it commences, he has no wish 
that it should take place, nor when it begins is he 
able of himself to carry it on : if left to himself, 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



Ill 



he would remain for ever ft in the gall of bitterness 
and in the bond of iniquity." It is the power of the 
Almighty which is employed to create him again. 
He, who at first "moved upon the face of the waters" 
to reduce the dark, and void, and formless mass to 
order and to beauty, puts forth his energies on the 
chaos of the sinner's soul, to rescue it from dark- 
ness, and tumult, and misrule — to make it the habi- 
tation of light and life — and to consecrate it as a fit 
temple for the worship, and service, and enjoyment 
of that God whose presence filleth all in all. Such 
is the native rebellion of his heart, that it cannot 
be overcome but by the Spirit of the Most High. 
Such is the difficulty of making him a willing and 
obedient subject to the divine government, that it 
must be surmounted by an arm which is resistless. 
Such is the difference between mere partial ame- 
liorations of character, and the grand spiritual re- 
novation of which our text speaks, that, while the 
former may take place in a thousand cases by the 
exercise of natural strength, and even by the impulse 
of unworthy motives, the latter cannot be accom- 
plished, even in a single case, without the applica- 
tion of omnipotence — without the contrivances of 
infinite wisdom — without the influences of a holi- 
ness which belongs to no created being. Surely, 
then, we must conclude, that the moral change 
which a man undergoes when he becomes a new 
creature, must be no light matter — no trivial con- 
cern ; it must be worthy of that agency which is 
set in motion to produce, and to mature it ; it must 



112 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



SER. 4. 



be of vast magnitude — of incalculable importance — 
of indispensable necessity . 

3. Now, let me state, in the third and last place, 
that " being a new creature," and " being in Christ," 
are inseparably connected. 

It is amazing and melancholy how sinners deceive 
themselves in respect to this point. They admit 
the truth of the proposition now stated ; but then, 
they so treat and they so apply it, as to acquire a 
notion of their own safety which the real facts of 
their condition and of their character will, by no 
means, warrant. Some, who have altered their- mo- 
ral conduct for the better, in certain points, which 
arrest the attention, and secure the favourable testi- 
mony, of their fellow-men, infer from this, that they 
are " in Christ," and are consequently entitled to 
count on their eternal salvation as secure. Others, 
again, think that they are "in Christ," because they 
have assumed his name, and professed his gospel, 
and are ready to defend the truth of his religion ; 
and then conclude that they have certainly expe- 
rienced the renewal which is necessary, and are 
therefore quite fit for heaven, and sure of reaching 
it. And some, who belong to the visible church 
of Christ, and can also point to the abandonment 
of what was immoral in their former practice, take 
advantage of both circumstances, and feel that 
they have a double title to congratulate themselves 
on the safety of their present state, and on the hap- 
piness of their future prospects. 

All who think and reason thus are labouring un- 
der a grievous delusion. Doubtless, whosoever is 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. 



113 



in Christ is a new creature, and whosoever is a new 
creature is in Christ. But, before you can rest 
upon such inferences as sound and legitimate, you 
must ascertain the reality of the facts from which 
you draw them : this you should be careful to do, 
by comparing your opinion of yourselves with what 
the Scriptures teach ; and you should, on no ac- 
count, come to a favourable conclusion merely be- 
cause it is pleasing and satisfactory, but only when 
you are authorized to do so by the truth of the 
case, as determined by the unerring word of God. 

You know what that word says respecting the 
nature and extent of the moral change implied 
in your being new creatures. Bring your cha- 
racter, then, to the test, See whether it corres- 
ponds with the character which inspiration deli- 
neates as comprised in, or as derived from, a renewal 
of the mind — whether it is so deep as to compre- 
hend your spirit and your principles — whether it is 
so unreserved as to leave no department under the 
dominion of sin — whether it is so universal as that 
" all old things are passed away, and all things are 
become neAv" — whether " old things" are deserted 
because you are conscious of a rooted dislike to 
them, on account of their inherent turpitude, their 
contrariety to God's will, their tendency to disho- 
nour and to destroy your souls — and whether " all 
things are become new," — the principles on which 
you act — the motives by which you are influenced 
— the ends and objects you pursue — the rules by 
which you are governed — the pursuits in which 

I 



114 SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. SER, 4. 

you find your comfort — the companions with whom 
you associate — the hopes by which you are animat- 
ed. Inquire into the subject thus strictly, and thus 
thoroughly, and you will be able with little difficulty 
to discover, how far you are warranted to believe 
that you have an interest in Christ, and are partak- 
ers of his great salvation, 

But never forget, in the midst of all your inves- 
tigations, that there can be no new creation unless 
you be " in Christ" — unless you truly believe in 
him — unless you are united to him, by virtue of that 
faith which receives him, and relies upon him, and 
submits to him as your Saviour. All spiritual bless- 
ings come from him. It is out of that sufficiency 
and fulness which it hath pleased the Father should 
dwell in him, that you are to derive whatever is 
needful to make you safe, or holy, or happy. And 
it is distinctly taught in the gospel record, that 
one purpose for which he gave himself to suffering 
and to death, was your deliverance from the slavery 
of sin — your renewal after the divine image — your 
restoration to that personal holiness, without which 
all other gifts are without meaning, and without 
avail. Now, this effect is to be produced by that 
alliance to him which faith constitutes and main- 
tains, which makes you part of his mystical body, 
and which operates by drawing from him, as your spi- 
ritual head, that life of which you are naturally des- 
titute, and the nourishment by which it is to be sup- 
ported, and strengthened, and matured. Do not 
therefore imagine that you either are, or can be, new 



SER. 4. 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION*. 



115 



creatures, unless you are " in Christ," as we have 
now described. There is such a thing- as being* " in 
Christ" by external profession, and external privi- 
lege. You may be thus " in Christ," as unfruitful 
and unhealthy branches are sometimes found in the 
vine. But you must be "in Christ" in another 
way, — even by becoming one with him, through the 
vital power of faith — -just as the branches, which, 
being grafted into the true vine, not only send forth 
leaves, and exhibit blossoms, but produce good fruit 
in abundance. Out of Christ altogether, or " in 
Christ" only in name and appearance, you can have 
no life in your souls, and can do nothing that is 
good. It is only when you are " in Christ," ac- 
cording to the spiritual meaning of that phrase, that 
your heart can be renovated, that the old man can 
be exchanged for the new, that there can be a will- 
ing, an unreserved, a devoted consecration of your 
powers and affections to the service of him by whom 
you have been redeemed, and that, instead of being 
withered and barren, and fit to be cut down, and 
burned, you can flourish and grow up in the garden 
of the Lord, and bring forth plentifully those " fruits 
of righteousness, which are by Christ Jesus to the 
glory and the praise of God." 

Let sinners, then, who would turn from the 
evil of their ways and live, be impressed with this 
great truth, that there is no redemption for them, 
which does not embrace the renewal of their minds 
and characters ; and that this is no more to be ob- 
tained than pardon and reconciliation, except 



116 



SPIRITUAL RENOVATION. SER. 4. 



through the cross and the Spirit of Christ. It 
is by Jesus that they must be turned from their 
iniquities. They must be " created again in Christ 
Jesus unto good works." And therefore, let them 
flee to Christ, and embrace him, and cleave to him, 
by a living faith. And let believers, while they give 
thanks to the Redeemer by whom they have been 
made new creatures, remember, that it is by the 
same Redeemer that they are to be maintained in 
the regenerated state into which he has brought 
them, and that their sanctification is to be carried 
on till they are ripe for immortality. Let them, 
therefore, be exhorted to live continually by faith 
in Christ ; to have recourse to him, at all times, as 
the fountain of moral purity; and to apply with " all 
prayer and supplication in the Spirit" for those com- 
munications of his grace, which shall strengthen 
what is weak, and perfect what is lacking in them, 
till they enter where ' 6 nothing that defileth" shall 
ever enter, and become "partakers of the inheritance 
of the saints in light." 



117 



SERMON V, 



THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 
2 CORINTHIANS i. 12, 

f- For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in 
simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the 
grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more 
abundantly to you-ward" 

Were I to put the question to any one, What is it 
that you rejoice in, as the ground of your hope and 
confidence towards God ? and were he to answer, 
The testimony of a good conscience, — I should not 
merely stand in doubt of that person, but maintain 
that he was building on an unscriptural and insuf- 
ficient foundation, and that the whole superstruc- 
ture he had erected upon it would be destroyed in 
the great day of the Lord. All that you have 
done, my friends, and all that it is possible for you 
to do, will never amount to a justifying righteous- 
ness; for " by the deeds of the law," you are assured, 
" that no flesh living can be justified." The only 
ground of hope and confidence towards God, that 



118 



THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE, SER. 5. 



you are warranted, or that it is safe for you, to rest 
upon, is the righteousness of the Redeemer, which 
is not only perfect, in its nature and extent, but di- 
vinely appointed, and divinely held forth, as alone 
adequate to that important purpose. Whatever be 
the attainments you may have made, and whatever 
the progress you may be competent to make, in 
obedience to the law of God, it would be madness 
to rejoice in these, as if they had virtue to secure 
for you forgiveness and eternal life. And more es- 
pecially, would it be madness, as you would be 
thereby neglecting a method of salvation as sure and 
efficacious as the word of omnipotence can make it. 
No : my brethren ; it is your safety, it is your duty, 
and it is your privilege, to " rejoice in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and to have no confidence in the flesh." 

But, then, it may be asked, is it an unlawful thing 
in any circumstances, or in any view, to rejoice in the 
" testimony of a good conscience ?" We cannot say 
so, when we look to the language of the text, and 
consider it as the language of an inspired apostle. 
Even though there had been no such express de- 
claration on the subject, and though apostolic expe- 
rience and example had been wanting, such re- 
joicing would have been justifiable on the obvious 
analogy, and essential doctrine, of Scripture. For 
if a good conscience," or " a conscience void of of- 
fence," is that which divine authority requires of 
us, and is a possession well-pleasing in the divine 
regard. And to know, or feel, that we have it, 
must be a source of satisfaction and happiness. It 



SER. 5. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 1 J 9 



supposes us to be adorned with much that is amia- 
ble, much that is respectable, much that assimilates 
us to God \ and therefore, to derive no gratification 
from the fact, would amount to an insensibility to 
moral excellence, and would violate a settled and 
important principle in our moral nature. A good 
conscience moreover, can never speak the same lan- 
guage, nor excite the same emotions, as a bad con- 
science : to derive happiness, therefore, from the 
approving testimony of the former, seems as una- 
voidable as to experience misery from the condemn- 
ing sentence of the latter. But the words of the 
apostle, as descriptive of his own state of mind, super- 
sede the necessity of all argument on the subject. For 
were the thing wrong, unsuitable to the true Chris- 
tian, or inconsistent with sound doctrine, he and his 
brethren never could have indulged in it, as they are 
here represented to have done; nor would they have 
recorded it, for the edification and encouragement of 
others, as that which constituted any portion of their 
happiness. No person could be more humble than 
Paul, under a sense of natural depravity and actual 
guilt. No person could more distinctly and forcibly 
teach the doctrine of man's utter destitution of every 
thing on which reliance could be placed for taking 
away sin, and securing the divine favour. No per- 
son could hold forth Christ more singly and exclu- 
sively as the Saviour, in whom alone transgressors 
of mankind can find pardon, and peace, and bless- 
edness. And no person could more fondly, more 
devotedly, more confidently, or more rapturously 



120 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. SER. 5. 

ding* to Christ and him crucified, as ali his salva- 
tion and all his desire. And yet he and his fellow- 
labourers, who were like-minded with himself on 
that all-important subject, declare, without any ap- 
prehension of being misunderstood, or of being" ac- 
counted heterodox, " Our rejoicing is this, even 
the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity 
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but 
by the grace of G od, we have had our conversation 
in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." 
. The two causes of rejoicing, therefore, must be 
perfectly harmonious ; and both may operate with- 
out any interference of the one with the other, and 
without detracting either from the character, or 
from the safety, of the individual who is affected by 
them. 

This text may be considered, first, as applied to 
Paul. He had laboured much in behalf of the 
Corinthian church, with a view to instruct and con- 
firm it in the faith of the gospel. And his labour 
had not been in vain ; for, through his instrument- 
ality, and by the blessing of God, it exhibited many 
examples of unwavering belief, of sincere piety, of 
practical godliness, of invincible patience, of Chris- 
tian consolation and joyfnlness. But still there 
were not wanting some who requited all that he 
did for its prosperity, with groundless prejudices, 
uncharitable suspicions, and ungenerous reproaches. 
He was spoken of, as if he had been actuated by 
mercenary or ambitious motives, and as if, under 
the guise of pious zeal, and spiritual benevolence, 



SER. 5. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 



121 



he had been all the while pursuing his own purposes 
of selfishness and aggrandizement. No species of 
treatment could be more offensive and galling than 
this. It wounded the best sensibilities of his heart. 
It tended to injure his reputation, and diminish his 
success. And had it not been counteracted by a 
consciousness of its injustice, as well as by superior 
influence, it must have gone far, not only to aug- 
ment his present distress, but also to discourage his 
future efforts. And what was it that supported 
and consoled him amidst the cruel surmises and 
bitter calumnies to which he was exposed, even 
from the men to whom he had been administering 
the benefits of Christianity ? It was the feel- 
ing and impression of his innocence, No doubt 
he was visited with the solacing and upholding 
communications of the divine Spirit ; but these 
would not have been vouchsafed, if he had been 
really chargeable with the base and worldly views 
that were imputed to him. And then to all the 
evils resulting from what . he suffered, in con- 
sequence of the things that were alleged against the 
purity of his intentions, there would have been add- 
ed remorse and self-condemnation, for being, in his 
own knowledge and conviction, the worldling, or 
the hypocrite, which his enemies reported him to 
be. But, instead of having such an intolerable ag- 
gravation of his outward trials, he had at once the 
negative consolation that he was falsely accused, 
and the positive and substantial consolation, which 
flowed from the witness of his own mind, that, in 



122 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. SER. 5. 

the sight of God, he possessed that uprightness of 
design, and that integrity of conduct, for which he 
did not obtain credit with men. And the con- 
solation thus afforded him, not merely soothed and 
sustained him when suffering from the ingratitude, 
the evil imaginings, and slanderous sayings of 
those who should have known him better and lov- 
ed him more ; it elevated him above the obloquy 
wherewith he was assailed — made him lightly es- 
teem, or altogether forget, the afflictions that 
beset him— and, amidst evils that would otherwise 
have depressed him with sorrow, not only enabled 
him to rise superior to their influence, but filled his 
soul with gladness. He rejoiced in this, that he had 
the favourable " testimony of his own conscience," 
to set against the censures and accusations of igno- 
rant, misjudging, or malicious men. His conscience 
testified, that, in every period, and in every depart- 
ment of his labours, he had acted with "simplicity" — 
with a single desire to glorify his Redeemer, and 
benefit the souls of men \ — that he was not dissem- 
bling, with a view to impose upon his fellow-crea- 
tures, but had that " sincerity" which was produced 
and nourished by a sense of God's holy presence, 
and which constrained him to avoid every false and 
wicked way, and to speak, and to live, with the 
unfeigned purpose of doing what was right ; — that 
he was not governed by the " wisdom" which is con- 
cerned in providing for the Si flesh," which seeks for 
carnal qualifications, which aims at worldly posses- 
sions, which has some sinister end to answer, even 



SER« 5, THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 123 



when professing* to be devoted solely to spiritual 
pursuits, and to be wrapt in the contemplation of 
heavenly objects, — but that, on the contrary, he 
was influenced and regulated by " divine grace," on 
which he humbly depended, for which he habitually 
prayed, and to which he cheerfully submitted, as 
that which alone could purify him from the corrup- 
tion of his own heart, fortify him against the assaults 
of temptation, raise him above all those little con- 
siderations of fame, and power, and vanity, and 
ease, by which even good men are too apt to be 
swayed, and render his " conversation honest in 
the sight of all men," by rendering it conformable 
throughout to the will of that God who requires 
" truth in the inward parts," as well as consistency 
and impartiality of obedience in the external con- 
duct. And, while the apostle rejoiced in the testi- 
mony of his conscience, that this had been his man- 
ner of life in general, while performing his official 
duties as a minister of Christ, he rejoiced, in a par- 
ticular manner, that this had been his manner of 
life, especially towards the members of the Co- 
rinthian church. He had examined his heart, 
and his ways, during his intercourse with them— 
the doctrine he had preached — the temper he had 
displayed — the conduct he had maintained ; and 
though, doubtless, he who confessed himself to be 
" less than the least of all saints," could not fail to 
be sensible of imperfections, and short-comings, and 
sins, yet of this he was conscious, that he had not 
sought "theirs, but them"— that his heart had been 
animated by the single desire of doing them good — 



124 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE, SEE. 5. 

that, throughout his whole proceedings as their spi- 
ritual instructor, he had been guided by disinterest- 
ed views — that, in every part of his behaviour to- 
wards them, he had abundantly manifested a self- 
denying spirit — and that he could meet every sus- 
picion, and every asseveration, of an opposite de- 
scription, with an appeal to Him who saw into his 
heart, and who knew that he " lied not/' when he 
declared his innocence of those unworthy senti- 
ments which they so ungratefully and illiberally 
laid to his charge. And, being conscious of all 
this, "he rejoiced" — he bore their calumnies with 
a patient and undisturbed mind ; and he was more- 
over glad, because, trusting in the merit of his Re- 
deemer for acceptance, he could also, from " the 
testimony of his conscience," look up to God, through 
Christ, for his approbation, and forward to heaven 
for a reward of those services to the Corinthian 
church, which divine grace had enabled him to ren- 
der, and in regard to which his motives were sus- 
pected, and his character traduced. 

And it is well for ministers of the truth, I now 
observe, secondly, to bear these facts in remem- 
brance. 

While we, my friends, are exerting ourselves for 
the welfare of our fellow-men— whether it be for 
their spiritual instruction, or for their temporal com- 
fort, — it is not unlikely that we may experience the 
same unthankfulness on the part of those whose in- 
terests we are promoting, which the apostle expe- 
rienced—that we may have our views and feelings 
misrepresented— that our most benevolent and use- 



SER. 5. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE, 



125 



ful actions may be ascribed to vanity, ostentation, 
thirst' for applause, or some other species of self-seek- 
ing — and that such may be the treatment given us by 
the very persons to whose advantage we have been 
most liberal and unwearied in contributing. All 
this I need not say, must be extremely galling and 
disheartening — -not only painful to our feelings, but 
apt to make us grow weary in well-doing. And, 
that we may be comforted under this trial, it is essen- 
tial that, like the apostle, we have " the testimony of 
a good conscience." If the insincerity, or worldly- 
mindedness, or impure motives, in which it has been 
whispered or declared that our conduct has origin- 
ated, have indeed had a place in our minds, then 
every spring of consolation is dried up ; and to what 
we suffer from the reproaches of those whom we 
have been befriending, there is added the bitter re- 
flection, that, in truth, we deserve all that we suffer. 
To guard against this, nothing will avail us, but 
that in every thing we be conscious of acting with 
" simplicity and godly sincerity ; not with fleshly 
wisdom, but by the grace of God." And, conscious 
of this, though we cannot be wholly insensible to 
the base and wicked returns made to us by the ob- 
jects of our bounty, we need not, and we shall not, 
be immoderately cast down. We have been doing 
good " as unto the Lord, and not unto men," and 
therefore we cannot lose our reward. We have 
" the witness in ourselves," that, whatever failings 
and faults may cleave to us, in this case we have 
been walking uprightly before God, as the disciples 
of Jesus Christ. He approves ; and that is an in- 



T 

126 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. SER. 5. 

finite recompense for all the censures that may be 
heaped upon us by uncandid observers or malicious 
and ungrateful slanderers. He will give us support 
and encouragement in our labours of love, from 
which neither ingratitude, nor obloquy, should ever 
induce us to desist. It may even please him to vindi- 
cate our character, and "bring out our righteousness 
as the noon day/' At all events, we have Him for 
our friend, while we have but men for our foes ; 
and assuredly he will in the end, he will for ever, 
put an end to the detractions which have accom- 
panied our doings upon earth, by pronouncing up- 
on us the sentence, and exalting us to the place, of 
" good and faithful servants" in heaven. And in 
" the testimony of our conscience," telling us such 
truths, connected with such views, and pointing to 
such an issue, we cannot fail, to whatever extent 
we may be visited with the evils which afflicted the 
apostle, like him, to have joy and rejoicing. 

But though the text must be thus applied in 
a peculiar sense to Paul and to all who are si- 
milarly circumstanced, we now observe, thirdly, 
that it may also be applied to the general charac- 
ter and experience of every Christian. The fact 
holds, not merely as to the trial here especially 
referred to, but to the whole range of Christian 
duty. When our conscience testifies, that, in any 
thing whatever, we have done well, in that we 
are permitted, and entitled, and called upon, to re- 
joice. This is not only agreeable to the laws which 
govern our moral nature, and by which a con- 



SER. 5. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 



127 



nexion is established between conscious rectitude 
and conscious satisfaction, but it is in strict accor- 
dance with experimental Christianity : it arises from 
the relation in which our good works stand to our 
spiritual safety ; and it is recognised in the state- 
ments and examples of holy writ. We must never 
indeed forget, even for a moment, the principle with 
which we introduced this discourse, that in regard 
to our title to eternal life, we have no ground of 
rejoicing but the righteousness and sacrifice of Je- 
sus Christ, received and relied upon in the exercise 
of humble, implicit, undivided faith. But in con- 
junction with this principle, we ought also to re- 
member, that whatever constitutes a part of salva- 
tion, or tends to satisfy us that salvation is ours, 
must proportionally and necessarily give us joy. 
Now personal holiness is one of the benefits which 
Christ has secured for his people : we cannot there- 
fore have that holiness without rejoicing in it. 
Great and delightful is the privilege of being guid- 
ed and influenced by divine grace ; can we then be 
conscious of walking in the ways of righteousness, 
without rejoicing in that which is a practical proof 
that the grace of God has been given to us, and not 
given in vain ? The Bible tells us that we are "jus- 
tified by faith," and that " faith without works is 
dead ;" if the works, then, which demonstrate the 
reality of our faith, and consequently of our justifi- 
cation, abound in our practice, can we refuse to re- 
joice in them, and in the conclusion to which they 
point ? Finally, as holiness enters essentially into 



1°2S THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. SER. 5, 

our meetness for heaven — the great and ultimate 
object of our hopes and expectations — we cannot 
fail to rejoice in every testimony to our holiness, 
when with that testimony is connected the convic- 
tion that we are in possession of the first fruits of 
that eternal life which God has promised to be- 
stow, on all who seek it by " a patient continuance 
in well-doing." 

Now, my friends, you see in the whole of this 
statement, nothing that should impress you in 
any measure or respect, with the idea of your 
having any thing meritorious whereof to boast, or 
that should have the least effect in drawing away 
your trust and your affections from Christ. On 
the contrary, whatever is morally good in you, is 
represented as derived, not from your independent 
energies, but from divine aid, and from that alone ; 
and all the rejoicing in it which you are warranted 
to feel, is to be traced exclusively to the finished 
work of " the Lord your righteousness, and your 
strength." Considering the virtues which you 
practise as a part of salvation, or as an effect of 
grace, or as an evidence of faith, or as a qualifica- 
tion for heaven, still, in every case, they are traced 
to the operation and merits of the great Media- 
tor. Viewed in these lights, and in these rela- 
tions — the only lights and relations in which they 
ought to be viewed — they leave you " unprofitable 
servants," miserable sinners, and by affording you 
satisfaction merely as pointing to Christ, as center- 
ing in him, as deriving all their value from him, as 



SER. 5. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE, 129 

nothing whatever, excepting in so far as they may 
be traced to him, they direct your regards to him 
as the foundation of all your hope, as the bestower 
of all your peace, as the source of all your joy. 
And to this conclusion we must come, not in 
spite of, but in conformity to, all that has been said, 
respecting the consolation and the gladness that 
spring from " the testimony of a good conscience," 
that "you must rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and have no confidence in the flesh." 

But, that you may have the rejoicing w T hich the 
apostle experienced, that it may be a rejoicing on 
sufficient grounds, and a rejoicing which no man 
can take from you, you must attend to these few 
particulars : 

First, While your rejoicing arises from the tes- 
timony of your conscience, you must be careful 
that your conscience be well informed. We know 
that the apostle's conscience was of this description ; 
for he had been taught by the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, and taught miraculously, not only 
that he himself might be an eminent believer, but 
that he might be an accredited teacher of others 
in all things pertaining to the doctrines of the gos- 
pel, and the duties of the Christian life. But, 
though the extent of your knowledge may not be 
equal to his, still it is necessary for you to have 
knowledge, as far as it can be attained. Labour, 
therefore, to acquire correct and extensive and con- 
nected views of divine truth, by perusing what he 

K 



130 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. SER. 5. 

and the other inspired writers have been moved 
by the Holy Ghost to indite, for the edification of 
the church ; meditate upon what you thus read, 
with seriousness and diligence ; and pray for illu- 
mination from above, to accompany the instruction 
which you derive from the written word. In this 
way, your conscience being fully enlightened, and 
duly alive as to all that God requires you to do 
and be, it will give neither a mistaken, nor a hurt- 
ful testimony : on the contrary, it will lead you to 
cultivate that deportment which accords with the 
spirit and the precepts of the gospel ; and while it 
permits you to rejoice, it will afford you a pledge 
that your rejoicing is warranted, by the testimony 
of Him who is " greater than your conscience, and 
who knoweth all things." 

Secondly, Be anxious to have all your motives 
pure. You may be distinguished by many outward 
virtues, which are agreeable to the letter of the di- 
vine law, and which will secure for you the ap- 
probation and applause of those who witness them, 
and especially of those who are profited by them. 
And yet, I need not tell you, that, if they proceed 
not from right principles, they are destitute of all 
real value ; they neither are an evidence of your 
interest in the Redeemer, nor can they have any 
effect in qualifying you for heaven ; to rejoice in 
them therefore, would be to rejoice in worthless- 
ness and vanity. Your great concern must be to 
have your hearts purified from the love of sin, and 
imbued with the love of holiness — to have estab- 



SER. 5. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 



131 



lished within you those truths, and those views, 
which God has sanctioned as alone worthy to regu- 
late the conduct of his people — and on every occa- 
sion to give to them their full operation, in pre- 
serving you from sin, and in stimulating you to 
duty. This will secure the conduct, which, what- 
ever appearance it may wear in the eyes of men, 
or whatever bearing it may have on the interests 
of those who are affected by it, is acceptable to 
God through Jesus Christ — which your own con- 
science will approve — and which will authorize you 
to comply with the invocation of the Psalmist, 
" Rejoice in the Lord, and be glad ye right- 
eous ; and shout for joy all ye that are upright in 
heart." 

Thirdly, See that your character be consistent 
and uniform. It is not an insulated deed of virtue 
or of charity, which will afford ground for " the 
rejoicing testimony of a good conscience." The 
deed of virtue which stands by itself, is not, in truth, 
a Christian virtue at all. An action, to be truly 
virtuous, must stand associated with virtue of every 
description ; and whatever legitimately gives birth 
to a rejoicing conscience, must form a constituent 
part of that aggregate of excellence, all of which 
proceeds from a divine source, and all of which is 
necessary to lead to a heavenly consummation. If 
your conscience dictate one holy action, be assured 
it will dictate every other ; and it will not approve 
of one, if the rest be wanting, nor will it give any 
sanction to the joy you may feel on account of that 



132 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. SER. 5< 

one. It is requisite that this be the testimony of 
your conscience, not that you have been righteous, 
and benevolent, and sincere, in one or two instances, 
but that you have been so in the general course 
and tenor of your deportment ; that you have had 
your " conversation in the world" accommodated 
throughout to the law of God, and pervaded by 
the spirit of true religion. Surrender yourselves, 
therefore, wholly to the service of the Redeemer ; 
withhold nothing which he exacts ; indulge in no- 
thing which he prohibits ; let it be your great con- 
cern to please him in all your ways ; and thus, 
" exercising yourselves to have always a conscience 
void of offence both towards God and towards 
man," you will be possessed of an inward " testi- 
mony," with which will be abundantly connected 
the " rejoicing," in which the apostle so freely and 
exultingly indulged. 

Finally, Never forget that all this must proceed 
from " the grace of God." To this the apostle 
refers in the text ; and we can never be too often 
reminded, that " of ourselves we can do nothing," 
nothing truly good or acceptable. Unless, there-^ 
fore, you have direction and assistance from on 
high, your best attainments will be meagre, and 
your best efforts fruitless. Let me exhort you, 
then, to distrust yourselves, and to look to Christ, 
as both your " righteousness and your strength." 
Study to do all things in his name, and in his 
might. Cast yourselves upon his management, 
that he may " guide you by his counsel upon 



SEli. D. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 



133 



his righteousness, that you may find favour with 
God ; upon his grace and spirit, that he may 
" sanctify you wholly." And, if thus He be to you 
" wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption," then are ye " complete in Him," 
and your ' 6 rejoicing" shall be full, and rapturous, 
and everlasting. 



SERMON VI* 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 

joshua xxiv. 15. 

" And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day 
whom ye will serve." 

" Seem evil unto you to serve the Lord !" How 
can the service of the Lord seem evil to any one 
who is not either wholly void of understanding, or 
altogether hardened against religious impressions ? 
Were I to put the question to you, my friends, if 
you deem it " evil to serve the Lord," is there one 
of you, old or young, who would not instantly and 
decidedly answer in the negative ? And were I 
again to ask you, if you did not think it good rather 
to serve the Lord, would not you all reply, as with 
one voice, in the affirmative, and acknowledge that 
to do so must be your duty, your honour, and your 

* Preached for the Edinburgh and Leith Seaman's Friend Society, 
in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, on the evening- of Sabbath, the 
11th April 1830. 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



135 



happiness ? Well, then, are you prepared to say, 
with a good conscience, that you are in fact serving 
the Lord ? 

By some of yon, I doubt not, an answer to this; 
inquiry also may foe returned ; for of some of you, 
I doubt not, it may be truly affirmed, that, redeem- 
ed by divine mercy, and with that price which the 
Son of God paid for your ransom — released from 
those bonds by which you were naturally held in 
slavery, and brought into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God, you are now devoted to the Lord, 
doing his will upon earth, and looking for the re- 
compense which he has promised to his servants in 
heaven. 

But I fear there are others of you of whom so 
much cannot be truly affirmed. You may, indeed, 
be nattering yourselves that you are the servants of 
God. You may be offended if we deny that this is 
your character. And you may point to many things 
which you regularly and habitually do, in proof that 
we are mistaken. You are not avowed unbelievers, 
but sober and uniform professors of Christianity. 
You abstain from all the more flagrant of those of- 
fences which the divine law forbids ; and you per- 
form all the more important of those duties which 
the divine law enjoins. You come punctually to 
the house of prayer, and engage, with every ap- 
pearance of devotion, in the various exercises of the 
sanctuary. You are kind and faithful to your friends. 
You are just and honourable in your dealings with 



186 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



the world. And there are many to bear witness 
to your deeds of sympathy and beneficence. 

Now all this may be, so far, a correct view of 
your deportment. Still more virtues might have 
been included in the catalogue. Your character 
may shine with still greater brilliancy, and be pos- 
sessed of still greater respectability and worth. And 
yet all that it exhibits does not amount to any satis- 
factory evidence that you are " serving the Lord." 
On the contrary, it is quite compatible with your serv- 
ing Mammon — with your 4 6 serving divers lusts and 
pleasures"— with your serving " the creature" in 
many of those various forms which it assumes and 
wears as the object of attachment. Remember, my 
friends, that the service of God is exclusive. It 
does not admit of interference, or of competition, 
or of divided homage. It deserves — it demands— 
and it must have — the whole man. If it be accom- 
panied with a deliberate or habitual withholding of 
the time, the talent, the affection, the activity — any 
of the offerings which God claims for himself as the 
great Supreme, it is deprived of its characteristic 
principle, and may as well be denominated the ser- 
vice of any other master. He is Lord over all ; he 
is entitled to your unqualified and unreserved sub- 
mission ; whatever you do, it must be done in con- 
formity to his will, and in subservience to his 
glory ; this is a right which eternally inheres in 
him, and which it is impossible for him to alienate ; 
and, therefore, when you indulge in any thing which 



SER. 6, 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



137 



implies a disregard of God's sovereignty, and dis- 
obedience to God's commandments, and violation 
of God's honour, you are guilty of that which is 
inconsistent with the devotedness of heart and life, 
which must ever distinguish those by whom he is 
truly served. It is of no consequence how many 
things you do, which are literally and formally pre- 
scribed by his authority, if yet there be other things 
with respect to which his authority is either not re- 
cognised or directly contradicted. For, in that 
case, his dominion over you is, with your own con- 
sent, encroached upon by objects to which you owe 
no allegiance, and to which you cannot pay it, with- 
out refusing to Him what is due upon a ground 
which it is not for the most exalted intelligences 
that surround his throne to occupy — a ground which 
it is not competent even for the universe to share 
with him — a ground which he alone possesses as 
the all-powerful and all-perfect Being who made 
you, to whom you owe all that you are, and all that 
you possess, and all that you can do. 

And this holds true even where your conduct 
does not involve a plain and manifest transgression 
of any part of the decalogue. To convict you 
of being unfaithful to God's service, it is not ne- 
cessary that you be chargeable with some specific 
crime, or with some course of immorality. Some- 
thing much less heinous in its nature, and much 
less striking in its aspect, will answer the purpose. 
From the spirit and manner in which you engage 
in the pursuits of lawful business — from the sort of 



138 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



amusements and recreations to which you betake 
yourselves, the time that you waste upon them, the 
expense at which you indulge in them — from the 
liking which you cherish, and the attention which 
you practically give, to any thing whatsoever con- 
nected with the world or things created — from these 
it may be seen, that the ascendency over you is pos- 
sessed, not by God alone, but by something else, 
with which he neither can, nor will, share his go- 
verning prerogative ; and that, consequently, the 
service which, in other points, you may imagine 
you are rendering to him, is a service only in name 
and in fancy — a service in which the works of 
his own hands, or the gifts of his own bounty, or 
even the enemies to his own sway, are put upon a 
level with himself — a service, therefore, of which 
he does not approve, and which he will never re- 
ward. His requisition to each one of you is, "Give 
me thy heart." He requires your heart — your whole 
heart — your heart with all its principles, and dispo- 
sitions, and sensibilities. And if your heart be 
thus surrendered to him, the conduct, which is but 
a demonstration of its influence and actings, will 
exhibit, in all its departments, and in all its bear- 
ings, a single regard to his will and glory ; so that 
you will addict yourselves to nothing which is at 
acknowledged variance with these, and even your 
most innocent pursuits will be in subserviency or 
in subordination to them. And they who, with the 
eye of holy observation, watch you as you are oc- 
cupied in the various employments, and as you pass 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



139 



through the various scenes and vicissitudes of life, 
will perceive, that, wherever you are, and whatever 
you do, all your works constitute and are referable 
to one service — that you " serve the Lord, and that 
you have no other gods but him." But, should 
there be one particular course of action, however 
inconsiderable it may be deemed, and however harm- 
less it may be in its effects upon others, in which 
you are chargeable with forgetting God, or with 
opposing him, that affords proof unquestionable, that 
He is not reigning in and over your heart — that 
there prevails, and is cherished, a hostile authority 
at the very seat and source of all acceptable homage 
— that the seeming excellencies by which you are 
distinguished are nothing better than tributes 
which you pay to public opinion, or to selfish am- 
bition, or to outward necessity — and that, with 
all the profession, and all the appearance, of serving 
the Lord, it is the melancholy and undeniable fact, 
that other masters have been allowed to usurp his 
place, and are holding their unrighteous dominion 
over you. 

Nay, but moreover, think my friends, what it is 
to serve the Lord, as believers in the gospel of his 
Son. Without this belief, which you profess to 
cherish, not only is there no salvation for you here- 
after, but there can be no such thing here, as your 
serving the Lord acceptably. You are placed un- 
der the dispensation of the gospel. You are not 
entitled to contemplate God, except in the light 
in which he has been pleased to reveal himself. 



i to 



nn: christian's choice. 



SER. (i. 



And all the regards thai you offer to him, must be 
in compliance with the principles which he has 
laid down, and the claims which he has preferred, 
as w the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? 
The service which you render, must be the service 
vou owe him as a redeeming' God. It must im- 
ply a fulfilment of those obligations under which, 
in that capacity, he has laid you. And it must 
stand in a just relation to that future recompense 
which he has taught you to expect from M Him 
whom he has appointed to judge the world in 
righteousness." 

Now, if you have been redeemed ; if you have 
been taken from under the curse of the law, re- 
scued from the bondage of corruption, delivered 
out of the hands of your spiritual enemies, brought 
into a state of peace and reconciliation with God, 
and made heirs of his heavenly kingdom ; and if 
this be vour faith, your feeling, and your experi- 
ence, think you. that there is aught in the wide 
universe that can rightly interfere between you and 
Him who has thus saved you, or to which you can 
yield even the smallest portion of that obeisance, 
all of which, though it were infinitely greater 
than it ever can be, he has so graciously, and so 
dearly, purchased ? What has the devil, or the 
world, or the rlesh done for your emancipation 
from sin and wretchedness ? Have not they 
wrought — are not they working- perpetually, lor 
vour continuance in that miserable state into which 
the fall has brought vou ? Is it not one of God's 



SElt. G. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



141 



purposes — one of the benefits of that freedom which 
the Saviour has accomplished in your behalf, to 
destroy their tyrannical and pernicious domination 
over your souls ? And how then can you listen to 
their suggestions, or be guided by their influence, 
without despising the deliverance which must be 
unspeakably precious to you, or not precious at ail ; 
without refusing to pay that debt of gratitude 
which you have contracted to him, from whose un- 
merited and rich mercy it has all proceeded ; and 
without virtually declaring your preference of that 
degrading and destructive servitude out of which 
he has brought you, to the spiritual liberty, and the 
celestial hopes, into the possession of which he has 
introduced you by the sacrifice of his beloved Son ? 
If the redemption with which God visited the Is- 
raelites, when he " brought them out of the land 
of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage," fur- 
nished Joshua with a powerful and conclusive ar- 
gument for their entering into a covenant to " serve 
the Lord only, and to serve him fully how po- 
tent, how persuasive, how overpowering, must the 
argument be, to constrain you to consecrate your- 
selves to his service, when you consider the re- 
demption which he has accomplished in your be- 
half, and of which he makes you the abundant, 
though undeserving partakers, — a redemption em- 
bracing the welfare of your never-dying souls, 
and commensurate with the duration of eternity ? 
You are "not your own" — you are God's — "you 
are bought with a price," and therefore bound by 



14-2 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



the most sacred and endearing ties, to " glorify him 
in your bodies and in your spirits which are his." 
And being thus the property of God — being his by 
the right of purchase — a purchase dictated by in- 
effable love, made at a costly rate, and issuing in 
glorious and permanent results to you who are the 
subjects of it, what room is there left for the de- 
mands of any created being on your reverence or 
submission, apart from his or contrary to it ? And 
how can you be his servants, while there is a single 
feeling of your heart, or a single action of your life, 
willingly devoted to any other claimant on your 
obedience, whose wishes or whose exactions he has 
not seen meet to sanction ? 

Now, my friends, apply this test to yourselves. 
It is no doubt a strict and searching one. But it is 
scriptural and true. Apply it to yourselves, and 
say if it does not ascertain, beyond all controversy, 
that there are those of you, and not a few, who do 
not " serve the Lord." In his external service, 
both as it respects the positive institutions of reli- 
gion, and the more prominent offices of morality, 
you may engage with great frequency and with 
seeming zeal. But, alas ! not to speak of those ha- 
bits of thought and sentiment which our vision can- 
not reach, and of those manifold occupations which 
you hide from us with the veil of secrecy and re- 
tirement, do not we see you every day giving your- 
selves to practices and to gratifications, which indi- 
cate any thing but the fear or the love of God, and 
which, if you will only make the attempt to recon- 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIANAS CHOICE. 



143 



cile them with his service, you will find to be not 
merely discordant with it, but utterly hostile to it, 
both in spirit and in letter. Those recreations and 
gaieties are sometimes dearest to you, which most 
unfit you for the duties of his Sabbath and his sanc- 
tuary, which banish from your mind most easily 
all serious concern about your present relation and 
your final responsibility to him, and which draw 
most largely on the resources with which he has 
supplied you as stewards of his bounty, for minis- 
tering to the relief of the poor, and the instruction 
of the ignorant. Sometimes, in the details of your 
lawful calling, you act upon maxims which stand 
opposed to the declarations and dictates of his word, 
and prosecute your secular plans with an eagerness 
which shows that you are looking no higher than 
temporal prosperity for your motive to industry ; 
that in your labours to accumulate wealth, or to 
provide for yourselves the meat and the gold that 
perisheth, you are careless about that blessing of 
his which alone " maketh truly rich ;" and that you 
are willing to live as if he had given you nothing 
in trust, and had never said to you, " Occupy till 
I come." And sometimes, from the mode in which 
you perforin what is even right in itself and com- 
manded by God, we cannot help concluding that 
you are doing it, not " unto the Lord, but unto 
men," — not willingly or cheerfully, but with a re- 
luctant, grudging 1 , discontented mind — not from the 
constraining influence of those considerations which 
the gospel intimates and urges, and which are sane- 



H4 THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE-. SEU. (5. 



tified by their uniform reference to God, but with 
the sole view of advancing* your secular interests, 
or of recommending yourselves to the favour and 
the patronage of your fellow-sinners. And do not 
suppose that the evil to which I allude is to be 
found only in such of you as manifest a glaring ex- 
ample, or a very offensive degree, of that contrariety 
which subsists between those parts of your charac- 
ter that have the aspect of serving the Lord, and 
those other parts of it that neutralize these mis- 
taken or hypocritical pretensions. It will be dis- 
covered in the case of every one of you, the 
tenor of whose life is not governed by the pa- 
ramount authority of " thus saith the Lord 
who does not, in small as well as in great things, 
study a scrupulous conformity to the divine will ; 
who obeys, when he does obey, God, in that cold 
and perfunctory manner, which denotes the ab- 
sence of all cordiality, all cheerfulness, all delight 
in " running the way of his commandments 
who, in his inmost heart and least open transac- 
tions, does not set himself to be faithful and devoted, 
equally as in his external demeanour, and in his 
most undisguised and notorious deeds ; who has 
it not as the object of his fervent desire and his con- 
stant endeavour, to yield an unqualified, unresist- 
ing, undivided, free, and full subjection to the sway 
of Him, whose he is by creating goodness, preserv- 
ing mercy, redeeming grace, and who has laid him 
under obligations of gratitude and obedience, which 
the mixed and imperfect dutifulness of his mortal 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



145 



pilgrimage can but barely acknowledge, and which 
all the sinless and lofty services of immortality will 
never be able to exhaust. 

To all such I would now address the exhortation 
of the text ; an exhortation justly applicable to 
them, and meriting their deepest and most anxious 
attention. 

1. In the first place, choose you whom you will 
serve, — the Lord, or those idols which an evil heart 
of unbelief has substituted in His place. 

From what we have just now said, it may be 
concluded that you have already and actually made 
your choice. And doubtless, in one sense, this is true. 
Whatever you may think, there is in each of you a 
fixedness of character, resulting from the determina- 
tions of your own minds, which may be discovered 
by those who look at it in the light of divine truth, 
and " judge righteous judgment ;" which, at any 
rate, is clear and unambiguous to the eye of the 
heart-searching and omniscient God ; and which 
will most certainly decide your destiny on that day 
which shall for ever separate " between the righte- 
ous and the wicked, between those who serve the 
Lord and those who serve him not." 

You may allege, that it does not " seem evil to 
you to serve the Lord." And, speculatively, as we 
have already remarked, this may be true ; but, 
really and practically, it is false. You think, you 
feel, you act, as if it did " seem evil unto you to 
serve the Lord." There is a latent repugnance in 
your minds to his service. There is an embodied 



146 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



hostility or indifference to it, in your every-day do- 
ings. There is a real devotedness to those whom 
you ought not to serve, which is essentially and ir- 
reconcilably inconsistent with a real devotedness to 
Him whom you ought to serve. Two masters, so 
opposite as the one is to the other in this case, you 
cannot possibly serve ; and, from the claims and the 
character of the true God, and from the claims and 
the character of those false gods which men's wicked 
passions have created for themselves, it is evident, 
that, if you serve them, you cannot serve Him. 
And the idea that you are submitting to His sway, 
when you are, in fact, their slaves, merely because 
you reject the atrocious saying, that it is " evil to 
serve the Lord," and are not disinclined to do many 
things included in that service, is all a delusion, 
which, however long it may last in this land of self- 
deception and shadows, must inevitably be broken 
when God " brings every secret thought into judg- 
ment, and gives to every man according to his 
works." 

Now, it is our wish that this delusion, so sad and 
so fatal, under which you labour, should be broken 
before the day of retribution comes. We are anx- 
ious that your eyes should now be opened to see the 
folly and the danger in which you are involved — 
that your hearts should now be undeceived, as to 
the real position in which you stand — that your pur- 
poses should now be directed towards that object, 
on which alone they can be rightly and safely fixed 
— that your feet should now be turned away from 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



147 



the path of error and of ruin, and guided into " the 
narrow way that leadeth unto life." You have been 
" halting between two opinions we are desirous 
that you should embrace one of them, and that you 
should abide by it. You have been trying to amal- 
gamate two systems : we are desirous that you should 
abandon the one, and cleave to the other. You have 
been taxing your ingenuity to serve two masters : 
we are desirous that you should confine your la- 
bours, and your attachments, and your duties, to 
one of these, and that you should forsake the other 
without lingering and without reserve. We are de- 
sirous that you should adopt this decided mode of 
proceeding, because it alone is wise and safe. And 
imagine not, that, when we exhort you to make 
your choice, we mean to insinuate, that, on what- 
ever side of the question your choice may fall, it will 
be well for you, either in time or in eternity. In 
exhorting you to make your choice, we proceed on 
the conviction, and the certainty, that the one alter- 
native is life, and that the other alternative is death 
— that either heaven or hell must be the result of 
the option which you are called to exercise. But 
we give the exhortation, that your attention may 
be directed to the fallacy of your conduct, and 
to the perils of your condition ; that you may no 
longer attempt to compromise what no power in 
heaven or on earth can ever make to agree ; that 
you may be led to look steadily and impartially at 
all the merits of the case, as to which you have been 
hitherto most dangerously indifferent and remiss ; 



148 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



that you may compare the course you have been 
pursuing, with what the word of God has told you 
of your spiritual and moral obligations ; that you 
may find out the necessary and immeasurable dif- 
ference, between " serving the Lord," and living as 
you have been accustomed to do ; and that, setting 
the one over against the other, you may behold, in 
the contrast which is presented to your view, what 
should effectually constrain you to cease from the 
unlawful service in which you have hitherto em- 
ployed your faculties, and attach yourselves exclu- 
sively and devotedly to that holy and god-like ser- 
vice, from which it stands at a vast and unapproach- 
able distance, both in the sight of God, and in the 
destiny of man. 

" Choose, then, whom ye will serve." If folly 
be permitted to direct you — if dishonour have any 
charms in your regard — if insensibility to infinite 
goodness, or defiance of almighty power, be esteem- 
ed by you a virtue — and if you wish that everlast- 
ing destruction should be your end, — then choose 
to serve sin — to serve Satan — to serve the world — 
to serve whatsoever would tempt you to ungodly 
actions, or to criminal indulgence ; for, most as- 
suredly, of this service it may be truly said, that 
its labours are debasement— its joys, madness — 
its wages, eternal death. No, my friends, you 
cannot, you will not, choose such a service as 
this. " Choose, then, whom ye will serve," — and 
" choose the Lord." His service is the highest 
glory of your nature — the most perfect liberty 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



149 



of rational and moral beings — the surest and most 
fertile source of inward comfort and outward pros- 
perity. It is sweetened by the saving mercy, and 
animated by the gracious help of Him who pre- 
scribes it, and to whom it is rendered. It is the 
work of the Divine Spirit, operating on the subjects 
of his regenerating power and his sanctifying agency. 
It is the fruit of that offering of Himself, by which 
Jesus Christ expiated our guilt, and thus " purged 
our consciences from dead works, that we should 
serve the living God." It exalts those who are en- 
abled to perform it, to an alliance with the minister- 
ing angels on high, and links them to the throne of 
the Eternal. And, whatever may be the toils, and 
the trials, and the sorrows, with which it is con- 
nected, or of which it is productive upon earth, it 
■has the divine promise of present support and con- 
solation suited to all such exigencies, and of a re- 
ward in the heavenly world, whose richness no 
tongue can utter, and no imagination conceive. 

" Choose the Lord" then as the King, the Mas- 
ter, the Saviour " whom you will serve." Make 
a covenant with him in your hearts, that no other 
shall receive your homage. Look into his word, 
and have recourse to it as the directory which is 
to guide you in all your endeavours to please and 
to honour him. Let your minds dwell habitually 
on the tenderness with which he has pitied, and re- 
deemed, and called you. Resist every allurement 
which would make you either remiss or unfaithful, 
in the work he has given you to perform. Pray to 



150 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



him for the pardon of those offences and short- 
comings which accompany your best and purest 
acts of submission to his authority, and for that 
strength which he alone can impart for " uphold- 
ing your goings in his ways, that your footsteps 
slide not." Study fidelity to him in the least, as 
well as in the greatest, of the duties which he 
requires from you — in the most sequestered, as 
well as in the most public, of those scenes in 
which he appoints you to labour for his cause. Let 
every movement you make in obedience to his 
command, or in promotion of his honour, be ani- 
mated by the spirit of love, invigorated by the ex- 
ercise of faith, and enlivened by a sense of his kind- 
ness, who enjoins and who requires it. And be ever 
looking forward to the recompense which awaits 
you in the kingdom of the just, that you may be 
cheered amidst all your difficulties and discourage- 
ments, and stimulated to still greater activity, and 
trained to still greater patience, in doing and in 
suffering all his holy will concerning you. 

But some of you, perhaps, though satisfied of the 
wisdom of the exhortation, and of the necessity of 
following it, are unwilling to make your choice 
immediately, and would rather continue a little 
longer that mixed and compromising service in 
which God and mammon have been equally the ob- 
jects of your regard. 

2. To all such I would, secondly, address the 
exhortation, " Choose ye, this day> whom ye will 
serve." 



SER. 6. THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



151 



Having acknowledged that you have been in 
error, — gross, grievous, and perilous error, — why- 
should you delay forsaking it ? Is not this to belie 
your own professed convictions ? Is it not deliber- 
ately to prefer the wrong to the right — the hazard- 
ous to the safe — the miserable to the happy ? Is 
it not to bargain with God — for the exhortation, 
though addressed to you through the medium of his 
servants, proceeds from Himself — is it not to bargain 
with God, as it were, to permit you to remain 
somewhat longer out of his household, and to in- 
dulge yourselves somewhat longer in that which 
offends and dishonours Him ? And the compensa- 
tion you offer is that having obtained this conces- 
sion from the great and holy Being, from whom, 
after all, it is impossible you can really hope to 
obtain it, you will then return to Him from whom 
you should never have departed, and yield to Him 
that obedience which you should never have with- 
held. O how can you justify or excuse yourselves 
for making such a proposal, or attempting such a 
species of procrastination. It is adding sin to sin 
— folly to folly — peril to peril. 

6 \ Choose you this day whom you will serve 
and instead of hesitating, as if you might still 
snatch another pleasure before you renounce your 
connexion with the world, account 6 \ the time past, 
as far more than sufficient to have wrought the will 
of the flesh." Wonder at the forbearance of God 
in not making you long since a monument of his 
righteous anger against the unholy and impenitent. 



15% THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. SER. 6. 



And let your experience of his sparing mercy awaken 
in you such shame, such grief, such repentings for 
having so obstinately kept away from him, and so 
ungratefully requited him, as that you will feel it 
to be unpardonable guilt to delay for another mo- 
ment casting yourselves into the arms of his com- 
passion, and going to " work in his vineyard." 

" Choose you this day whom you will serve 
because the sooner that you enter on God's service, 
in its full import, the sooner will you consult the 
dignity of that rational nature which he has given 
you, and which you have been hitherto degrading, 
by keeping it in the bondage of moral corruption ; 
the more will you consult the obligations which 
you owe to him as your benefactor, and your Sa- 
viour — obligations which no circumstances can ever 
weaken or annul ; and the more will you consult 
your comfort and well-being, as inhabitants of the 
scene which you now occupy, and in which the 
fear of the Lord, and the keeping of his command- 
ments are as contributive to the happiness of a pre- 
sent life, as they are essential to your preparation 
for a future and a better. 

" Choose ye this day whom you will serve be- 
cause to delay the change which a right choice im- 
plies, will be the means of rendering it more diffi- 
cult in the end. The habits which at present con- 
trol you in your purposes of reformation, and in- 
dispose you for the execution of them, will grow 
gradually stronger as you advance in your way- 
ward career. And the same deceitful arguments — 



SER. 6. THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



153 



the same delusive influences which are now pre- 
vailing over your convictions, will occur with more 
insinuating address, and operate with more formid- 
able power, at every future period of your course. 

" Choose you this day whom ye will serve for 
if you do not embrace the existing opportunity of de- 
voting yourselves wholly and heartily to God, which 
is your reasonable and bounden service, another 
opportunity may never be afforded. Many things 
may happen to prevent you from carrying your re- 
solution into effect, even supposing, what is extremely 
doubtful, that your resolution is sincere, and ample, 
and decided. Engrossing worldly cares, agonizing 
disease, helpless debility, mental alienation, may 
put an interdict on your best designs, and exclude 
you from any farther participation, even in that im- 
perfect and defective service, in which you have 
been so long and so vainly confiding. And death 
itself may come upon you at an unexpected mo- 
ment, and suddenly remove you to that dread reck- 
oning, which will make no account of the purposes 
that you formed, and delayed to fulfil ; which 
will rather pronounce it to be an aggravation of 
your guilt and of your doom, that you knew what 
was good, and continued to do what was evil — that 
you determined to serve God, and yet continued 
to serve his enemies till you should be pleased to 
exchange their service for his, and that thus you 
treasured up for yourselves, amidst the obvious 
warnings of his providence, and amidst the confess- 
ed workings of his grace, a larger measure of that 



154 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. SER. 6. 



righteous indignation, which he has threatened to 
pour out on all those who " will not have him to 
rule over them," or who " serve the creature more 
than the Creator. ,, 

O be wise, then; and " choose this day," this very 
day, whom you will serve. Give yourselves to God 
— give yourselves to God wholly — give yourselves 
to God now, and give yourselves to God for ever. 

To such of you as have already made your 
choice, and have chosen " the good part," I would 
now address myself. And perhaps you may think, 
that I have been neglecting you, and occupying 
myself too exclusively with those of a different and 
opposite character. But if you will give scope 
to your Christian feelings, my apology for acting 
thus will be obvious and sufficient. Let there be 
but " one sheep" that has gone astray, and is wand- 
ering at a distance from the good shepherd, and on 
the eve of perishing, have I not great authority for 
leaving the " ninety and nine" and going forth to 
seek for that solitary wanderer, if haply I may find 
him, and bring him back in safety to the fold which 
he had left, that there may be joy on earth, and 
that there may be joy in heaven. And alas ! may 
it not be presumed, even with the utmost stretch 
of that " charity which hopeth all things and be- 
lie vetli all things," that, instead of one only, there 
are many in this large assembly, to whom the ser- 
vice of God is still a strange or a distasteful work, 
and who in affection and in practice have joined 
themselves to idols, and are in bondage to the 



SER. 6. THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



155 



world and to sin ? And surely, my Christian 
friends, you cannot grudge any efforts that may be 
made by the ministers of the gospel, to awaken 
such from their spiritual slumbers, to rouse them 
to an alarming sense of their condition, to reclaim 
them from the paths of guilt and ruin, and to bring 
them to that Saviour who bled for their souls, who 
weeps for their infatuation, who has commissioned 
us to beseech them to be reconciled, and who calls 
upon them from his throne on high to repent, and 
believe, and live. You know the misery of that 
state in which they are now living, for you have 
lived in it yourselves. You know the safety, and 
the comfort, and the happiness of being redeemed 
from it, and becoming the servants of him who paid 
the ransom ; for you possess and feel, what you 
would not exchange for a thousand worlds. And 
it is a first lesson of the grace that has brought you 
this salvation, a first fruit of that delightful expe- 
rience, which is so precious to you, that your com- 
passions go forth upon them who are still far from 
God, and far from righteousness ; that you suppli- 
cate the Father of mercies in their behalf, that you 
withhold no aid and refuse no exertion, which may 
be blessed as an instrument for emancipating and 
saving them. Instead, therefore, of murmuring that 
I have done what I could, to persuade them to 
choose the service of God, to the utter and eternal 
abandonment of all other services, I trust that your 
secret, but fervent prayers have gone along with 
every argument I have urged, with every expostu- 



156 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. G. 



lation I have used, with every threatening I have 
held out, with every invitation I have given, to 
prevail upon the apostate sinners who are beside 
you, and^among you, and around you, to hasten 
away from all that has been hitherto ensnaring their 
hearts, or binding them over to the debasing 
drudgeries, and the unreal joys, of a moral despot- 
ism, to come into that liberty wherewith Christ 
makes his people free, and to consecrate their all 
to the will and to the glory of a Master who, as 
he has given himself for their ransom, will impart 
to them his Spirit for their help, and confer upon 
them immortality for their reward. 

And I trust that your sympathies will accom- 
pany me, as I bid you take a wider range, and not 
cease from your prayers and your exertions, while 
there is a human being within your reach whose 
heart rests upon the creature, and whose return 
you may encourage to the worship and service of 
the great Creator. Alas ! what multitudes are 
there upon the face of the earth who are daily 
" bowing the knee to Baal," — who are doing hom- 
age at the shrine of Mammon — who are " led cap- 
tive by Satan at his will" — who are eager, and in- 
dustrious, in doing whatsoever their unholy pas- 
sions bid them, and who either know not God at 
all, or only render him that obedience which can 
be spared from the obedience of the " other lords" 
who have acquired the mastery over them. Here 
is a field of spiritual benevolence on which you may 
expatiate with ceaseless interest, and toil with 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



157 



ceaseless activity ; and it is your duty, as the ser- 
vants of Christ, to cultivate it according to your 
talents and your means and your opportunities, 
that you may not be wanting in what you owe at 
once to your merciful Redeemer, and to your pe- 
rishing brethren. 

I call your attention this evening to a class of men 
— your fellow-subjects, your neighbours, — whose 
situation demands your kindness and your care ; 
and I plead with you in behalf of an Institution 
which is labouring affectionately, diligently, and 
successfully for their highest and most enduring in- 
terests. The Edinburgh and Leith Seaman's Friend 
Society must be already well known to you, for it 
has existed for many years : it has carried on its 
meritorious work at your very door, and under 
your very eye : it has frequently appealed to you 
for support, and has received it ; and no one has 
pretended to doubt that its efforts have been both 
wise and vigorous, and that it has been honoured, 
under the blessing of Heaven, to confer signal be- 
nefits on that interesting part of the population 
whom it has taken under its guardianship, and vi- 
sited with its mercy. It cares for their temporal 
comfort, and it cares for their eternal salvation. 
Its main object is to wean them from the service 
of sin, and to engage them in the service of God. 
And while for this purpose, it studies to separate 
them from the temptations to profusion and intem- 
perance and idleness, to which they might otherwise 
be too much exposed, and by which they might other- 



158 the christian's choice. ser. 6. 

wise be too easily overcome, it strikes at the very 
root of all the mischiefs that beset their lot and 
surround their path, by a moral machinery which 
provides them with saving knowledge, which goes 
to penetrate their hearts, and to imbue them with 
the principles and spirit of the gospel, and which 
teaches, and encourages, and stimulates them to seek 
for their happiness in the favour of God, in the ex- 
ercises of piety, in the practice of holiness, in the 
hope of heaven and immortality. I could dilate 
with pleasure on its various means of elevating their 
character, and improving their condition — means 
which were wont to be thought of with indiffer- 
ence, or treated as the subjects of wonder, of mer- 
riment, or of idle pity. I could tell you of the 
tracts which it circulates — of the Bibles which it 
distributes — of the education which it imparts — of 
the ordinances which it administers — of the visits 
of Christian love which it pays — of the numberless 
offices of kindness by which it enlightens, and 
comforts, and animates the objects of its constant 
solicitude. But I need not occupy your time in 
such discussions. You are already acquainted with 
the character and merits of this establishment. Its 
directors deserve every degree of confidence you 
can repose in them. Its funds need to be replen- 
ished by the bounty of a generous and Christian 
public. Its prosperity will, in some good measure, 
depend upon the supply which it this evening receives 
from the audience that I now address. It throws 
itself upon your charity. And I am sure you will 

3 



SER. 6. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



159 



not willingly mar its usefulness, or disappoint its 
expectations, by withholding what the providence 
of that God whom you and it are united in serving, 
has enabled you to bestow. O think of the seaman, 
embarked upon the dangerous deep — exposed to the 
furious tempest, or to the unwholesome climate, or 
to the thousand perils which surround him in his 
adventurous course. If, by the protection of Him 
who rules over all, he escape these multiplied ha- 
zards, and come back in safety to his native shore 
and his beloved home, what a blessing for him to 
find, that, while he himself has gone and returned, 
in the faith of that Saviour in whom he has been 
taught to believe, and in a dependance upon that 
Almighty arm on which his once godless soul has 
been taught to lean for guidance and protection, his 
wife and his little ones have been learning the same 
lessons, and practising the same virtues, and enjoy- 
ing the same peace. And, if he be fated never more 
to revisit that domestic circle which he left in sor- 
row and in hope, and with all the yearnings which 
are known only to the heart of a seaman- husband 
and a seaman-father ; if it be the will of that God 
whom he loves and serves, that he should be the 
victim of a fatal shipwreck — the vessel his coffin, 
and the ocean his grave — O what a precious conso- 
lation to him to recollect, as he sinks in the remorse- 
less waters, that he does not leave his widow dis- 
consolate, nor his orphans unprotected — that they 
are in the hands of Christians, who love their souls, 



160 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE. 



SER. 6. 



and will not abandon them to ignorance, oppres- 
sion, or destitution — and that he is going to that 
blessed and peaceful region, for whose mansions they 
also are training, and amidst whose blessedness they 
and he shall meet again, and dwell, and rejoice for 
ever ! 



161 



SERMON VII.* 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 
matthew xxv. 35, last clause. 

" I ivas a stranger, and ye took me in." 

There is a certain class of people who not only' 
build their hopes of salvation upon their own per- 
sonal righteousness, but who even restrict that 
righteousness, as the foundation of their hopes, to 
acts of benevolence. And when we remonstrate 
with them on the presumptuousness, and the dan- 
ger, of such an idea, they quote, in support of it, 
the passage of which my text forms a part, and ask 
triumphantly whether it be not a clear an d irrefragable 
proof, that, if we abound in deeds of kindness to the 
poor, the afflicted, and the oppressed, we shall have 
boldness in the day of judgment. 

Now, to those by whom such a sentiment is, in 
any degree, maintained, I would address a few re- 

* Preached in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, 18th December 
1828, when a collection was made in behalf of the Spanish and Italian 
Refugees, at the request of the Lord Provost and Magistrates. 

M 



162 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7. 



marks, tending- to show that it is altogether with- 
out countenance or sanction from the word of God. 

In scripture, it is by no means uncommon to an- 
nex the attainment of future happiness to the exer- 
cise of a particular grace. Of this fact I could give 
you a multitude of examples, were it necessary. 
But if the opinion I am supposing you to entertain 
be correct, as to almsgiving, it must be equally cor- 
rect as to all the other graces of Christianity, which 
are placed in a similar connexion. Why fix upon 
this, and neglect the others, since they and it have 
the same common authority ? For what good rea- 
son should not any one of these be the ground of 
expectation and assurance, as well as that which 
you have particularly selected for the purpose ? If 
you are to obtain a sentence of acquittal, in conse- 
quence of being beneficent to the needy and the 
wretched, why may not a sentence of acquittal re- 
sult as well, and as certainly, from your godliness, 
or your humility, or your justice, or your patience, 
or your purity, or any other single feature of the 
Christian character ? 

The truth is, that the scriptural statement, when 
correctly apprehended, is perfectly consistent with 
itself, and is founded in the very nature and reason 
of the thing. It does not mean, that, if you have 
any particular virtue, and no other, you shall be ad- 
mitted into heaven ; for, truly, the possession of but 
one insulated virtue will appear to us impossible, if 
our ideas of holiness be taken from the gospel. Ac- 
cording to the gospel scheme of morality, every ge- 



SEIt. 7. CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



163 



nuine virtue must be the fruit of a regenerated heart, 
and must be practised under the influence of right 
principles and motives. But if the heart be indeed 
regenerated, and if the conduct be indeed governed 
by right principles and motives, then there will be 
a cordial disposition, and a habitual endeavour, to 
obey the will of God in every thing. And, on this 
account, whenever a particular virtue has the pro- 
mise of eternal happiness attached to it, we are to 
regard it as co-existing with all its kindred virtues, 
though they be not specifically stated, and as, in 
fact, the representative of the whole character, 
though it be not mentioned as holding that sta- 
tion. If, therefore, any one build his prospects of 
future blessedness on his alms-deeds, we say to him, 
in strict conformity to his own general principle, 
" It is true you abound in alms-deeds, but if you 
are sincere in this duty, as enjoined by God's will, 
you cannot fail to be diligent in the discharge of all 
other duties. A pure fountain cannot send out a 
transparent stream on one side, and a polluted stream 
on the other. If the heart be changed, and sancti- 
fied, and swayed by a holy influence, this influence 
will work its proper effects in every department of 
the life. And, we ask you, are you spiritually- 
minded — are you clothed with humility — are you 
just in your dealings— are you patient under trials 
and provocations — are you devoted to God ? If 
you are not characterised by these things, as well 
as by that, of which you boast so much, and in which 
you trust so securely, then you can no more look for 



164 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7« 



heaven, than the man who strictly observes the 
eighth commandment, but disregards every other 
part of the decalogue." 

Even all the moral virtues together, will not an- 
swer the purpose for which so many seem to think 
almsgiving exclusively sufficient ; for, if condem- 
nation and acquittal are severally allied to the pos- 
session and to the want of these, the very same thing 
may be said of faith. Of faith, scripture speaks 
thus : " He that believeth on the Son of God is not 
condemned; but he that believeth not, is condemned 
already." Christ, we are told, will come at the last 
day to be " glorified in his saints, and admired of all 
them that believe." And then his people shall " re- 
ceive the end of their faith, even the salvation of 
their souls." Now, why may not we assume for 
faith, that very place, to which some advance the 
practice of the moralities and charities of life, as to 
its effect upon our future destiny ? There is just 
as much scriptural warrant for putting the one, as 
there is for putting the other, into that connexion. 
And, were we to adopt the same line of argument 
in both cases, it would be at least as idle to censure 
those who rest their hopes for judgment upon " faith 
without works," as it would be to censure those who 
depend upon " works without faith." That such 
notions should be held and acted upon by either, is 
a proof that they have not considered the scripture 
doctrine on this subject, or that they have not un- 
derstood it. 

The great and distinguishing character of the 

3 



SER. 7. CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



165 



gospel is, that it is a message of grace to sinful 
and ruined man— a method of redemption, devised 
for creatures who cannot redeem themselves — a 
plan of restoration, for the benefit of those who, by 
transgressing the law of God, have incurred its pe- 
nalty, and who have no ability in themselves either 
to atone for what is past, or rightly and acceptably 
to obey for the future. To supply these radical 
defects in our spiritual condition, a Saviour is re- 
vealed, who is mighty to deliver us. And how do 
we become interested in the benefit resulting from 
his interposition ? Not, surely, by works ; for the 
insufficiency of our own doings to obtain justifica- 
tion before God, is the very reason why a divine 
Saviour is necessary* and why a divine Saviour is 
sent. But, according to the express language of the 
Bible, it is " by faith/' Christ is " set forth as a 
propitiation for our sins, through faith in his blood." 
He is " the end of the law for righteousness to every 
one that believeth." " To as many as received him, 
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, 
even to them that believed in his name." " God 
so loved the world, that he sent his only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but might have everlasting life." Faith, 
then, is the only medium through which the Saviour 
and the blessings of his salvation can become ours. 

But, if it be asked, whether, consistently with 
this statement, our good deeds be essential to our 
appearing before God in judgment, we answer, 
certainly they are. For, though we are not under 



166 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7. 



the law, as a covenant of works, we are still under 
it, as a rule of conduct. And obedience to it is still 
requisite, not merely in submission to the Supreme 
will, but as a test and evidence of our faith in the 
Redeemer, and as a qualification for the happiness 
of heaven. And we are to be judged " accord- 
ing to our works," because this accords most with 
the nature of a general judgment — the practical ef- 
fects of dispositions and feelings being more tangible 
and obvious, than the dispositions and feelings them- 
selves ; and because, if the general course of our life 
has been evil, this will show not only that we have 
sinned, but that we have also perversely refused to 
repent, and to accept of a Saviour ; while, on the other 
hand, if the general course of our life has been good, 
it will show that our rebellion has been succeeded 
by penitence and faith ; and, moreover, because our 
deeds being good or evil, will demonstrate our fit- 
ness for that place of happiness, or of misery, into 
which the sentence of our Judge shall send us, and 
exhibit the fullest proof, which assembled myriads 
can require, that all his awards, of suffering, and of 
blessedness, are the dictates of infinite mercy and 
unimpeachable justice. 

Nor is it difficult to perceive why charity has been 
selected, as that branch of moral excellence upon 
which the Judge will ostensibly found his final de- 
cree. Charity is the fruit of love to God, and is 
" shed abroad in the heart by the power of the 
Holy Ghost." It is of the operation of true faith, 
and gives the most satisfying evidence of its reality 



SER. 7. CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



167 



and its power. It is " the bond of perfectness and 
the fulfilling of the law." Such being- its high im- 
portance in the code of Christian morality, we can- 
not wonder at the distinguished honour that is to 
be put upon it in the day of judgment* And, be- 
sides, while justice, in all its forms, may be easily 
defined, and can be enforced by the authority and 
sanction of human laws, charity is of such a nature 
as not be amenable to human jurisdiction ; it must 
be left, in its variety of exercise and extent, to the 
discretion of the individuals by whom it is prac- 
tised ; and, consequently, wherever it truly and 
abundantly resides, it testifies, better than any other 
virtue can do, the existence, the strength, and the 
dominion, of those great Christian principles, from 
which alone it can emanate, and by which alone it 
can be supported. 

With the same ease we can account for singling 
out those particular expressions of charity which 
are here specified. We have already observed, that 
when any virtue is brought forward as terminating 
in everlasting life, it must be understood to be prac- 
tised in its genuine nature, and full latitude ; and 
whenever it is so practised, it is of course accom- 
panied by every other virtue. And, this being 
the case, any one virtue will substantially answer 
the purpose as well as another. But as, for the 
reasons we have assigned, there is a peculiar pro- 
priety in fixing upon the grace of charity, in gene- 
ral, so there appears to be a peculiar propriety also 
in fixing upon those instances of it, in particular, 



168 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. SER. 7* 



which are here adduced ; because the occasions of 
them are of every day's and every hour's occurrence ; 
they have nothing* of the splendid or the magnificent 
to recommend them ; they are the minute offices 
of kindness to the destitute and the distressed which 
do not make a figure in the eye of the world, but 
are continually called for ; they are demanded by 
the feelings of common humanity, as well as by the 
sentiments of Christian compassion; and he who 
neglects them has, beyond all controversy, no pre- 
tension to moral excellence, while he who performs 
them with the tenderness, the activity, the diligence, 
the minuteness, which are here so pathetically de- 
scribed, affords a demonstration that he has the 
faith of the gospel, for " it worketh by love," and 
thus " loving his brethren whom he hath seen," we 
conclude, and are satisfied, that he also 6 ' loveth God 
whom he hath not seen ;" and therefore is meet for 
the services, and the enjoyments, of that better state 
in which his Judge shall assign him his everlasting 
portion. 

It may, perhaps, be stated as an additional reason 
for our Saviour's choosing these modes of charity, 
as liis example, that they are precisely such as the 
exigencies of his followers would peculiarly require. 
Of them, and of their circumstances, he never failed 
to think with the kindliest interest, and the warmest 
affection. He was aware of the hardships and per- 
secutions to which they were to be subjected, after 
his departure. He knew that hunger, and naked- 
ness, and imprisonment, and sickness, w r ere to be 



SER. 7. CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



169 



the evils of their lot, in consequence of their labours 
in his cause. Amidst such distresses as these, they 
would stand in the utmost need of sympathy and as- 
sistance. And the exercise of such sympathy, and 
the communication of such assistance, would be 
duties of imperative obligation upon all who are ca- 
pable of feeling* the one, or of rendering the other. 
So that, having these thoughts fully in his view, 
and strongly impressed upon his mind, it is neither 
an improbable supposition, nor a refined specula- 
tion, that he allowed them to mingle in the account 
he was giving of the final judgment, and to in- 
fluence, in one important particular, his delineation 
of that eventful scene. But though he may have 
had the treatment of his suffering disciples more im- 
mediately in his eye, yet the principle is of univer- 
sal application, and embraces charitable conduct, in 
whatever circumstances it may be required, and by 
whomsoever it may be maintained. 

Let me now say a few words on the import- 
ance and necessity of the charity which is here spo- 
ken of. 

A great deal of emphasis is laid upon it through- 
out the whole of Scripture. We cannot read al- 
most a page of the sacred volume, without finding 
it inculcated in some form or other. And, indeed, 
so thoroughly imbued with it is the whole system of 
our faith, that every one, who breathes the spirit of 
Christianity, breathes also the spirit of charity. The 
doctrines of the gospel constrain us — its precepts 
teach us — its examples encourage us- — its promises 



170 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. SER. 7* 

animate us— to practise it. And, that nothing may 
be wanting- to make us cherish it, as a constituent, 
a prominent, a conspicuous, part of our character, 
our Saviour brings it forward in his description of 
the last day, as the great and decisive test of our 
meetness for the kingdom of heaven. If we have 
it, we shall receive a sentence of acquittal, and be 
admitted into the joys and the glories of immortality. 
If we be destitute of it, we shall receive a sentence 
of condemnation, and be consigned to the regions 
of misery and despair. Think, my friends, of the 
extent of your demerit, if you go before the tribu- 
nal of God without it, that y ou may see how in- 
dispensably requisite it is to your safety and welfare. 
This demerit does not consist merely in your having 
shut your heart, and your hand, against the cry of 
the needy. That, of itself, would be sufficient to 
place you on the left hand of your Judge, because it 
would have been the violation of an explicit com- 
mandment of the law of God. But it arises from the 
total absence of Christian principle and Christian 
sentiment, and the general and abiding depravity of 
mind, which indifference to the wants and the 
wretchedness of our poor brethren invariably indi- 
cates. From what we have already said, and from 
what you know, of the hiaxims and declarations of 
scripture, think you, that while harbouring such 
indifference, you can possibly have that i 6 faith" in 
the Redeemer by which sinners are justified and 
saved ? — that there dwelleth in you the love of 
God, whom you are bound to " love with all your 



3ER. 7- 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



heart" — that you are under the direction and in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, whose " fruit is in all 
goodness," and whose sanctifying grace is necessary 
to prepare you for heaven ? Think you, that any 
of the other excellencies of the Christian life adorn 
you, since they all spring from the same source, 
and are all held together by the same bond of 
union ? Think you, that you can have been " re- 
newed in the spirit of your mind," when you have 
not " put on bowels of mercies," and are still nou- 
rishing the hard-heartedness, and walking in the 
selfish ways, of the natural man ? Think you, that 
you have any thing about you of the temper and 
character of your divine Master, whose example is 
left for your imitation, and of whom it is truly said 
that " he went about doing good ?" Think you, 
that you are qualified for associating with " the 
spirits of the just made perfect," and for uniting 
with them in the pursuits and the enjoyments of 
that happy place, where <c charity never faileth ?" 
And think you, that you are fit for appearing be- 
fore Christ in judgment, when you have cherished 
this hard and unfeeling temper, in spite not only of 
his grace leading him, " though he was rich, to 
become poor, that ye through his poverty might be 
rich," but in defiance of the solemn warning which 
he gives, that, with regard to this very thing-, he will 
call you to a strict and particular reckoning at the 
last day, and that he will reward or punish you, 
according as you are found to have observed or ne- 



172 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SE R. 7 . 



glected the great duty of charity to the poor and 
the afflicted. 

Ah, my friends, it is no ordinary guilt that will 
attach to you, if you have been wanting in this re- 
spect. Just observe what an interest the Saviour 
takes in it. He identifies himself with his suffer- 
ing' and indigent followers ; and the good and evil 
which are done to them, he will regard and recom- 
pense as done to himself. " Inasmuch as ye did it 
to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto 
me." " Inasmuch as ye did it not to these my 
brethren, ye did it not unto me." I mention this, 
not to show the infinite condescension of Christ, 
(though such condescension may well shame the 
proud despisers of the poor, by demonstrating, how 
unlike they are to the master whom they profess to 
serve,) but to point out the aggravations . of such 
misconduct, the guilt of those who commit it, aris- 
ing not merely from their treatment of the poor, 
but from their treatment of Him, who is the Saviour 
of the rich and the poor together ; for the doc- 
trine of this passage plainly is, that if you withhold 
your hand from giving to them who are in need, 
and from relieving them who are in distress, every 
pang which you inflict by your neglect, or by your 
cruelty, even upon the lowest of your fellow-crea- 
tures, you virtually inflict upon the Redeemer and 
the Judge of the world : he feels it as a personal 
injury — it amounts to a practical rejection pf him, 
and he will mark it as such, when he reckons with 
you at the last, and pronounces your final doom. 



SER. 7- 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



173 



But perhaps, while thus enforcing- charity, I shall 
be told, that want of charity is not characteristic of 
the times, or of the place, in which we live, and 
that exhortations to almsgiving are, at the very 
least, superfluous. I acknowledge, with unfeigned 
pleasure, the liberality which; prevails among all 
classes of the people ; and I am confident, that in 
your contributions this day, we shall have an addi- 
tional proof of it, at once substantial and gratifying. 
But among the most humane, there will always be 
found some to mingle, in whose breasts and con- 
duct it is too much a stranger, and who need to be 
roused to a sense even of this duty, the most obvi- 
ous, perhaps, of all the duties incumbent on the 
followers of Christ. The very \ circumstance of 
charity being so prevalent is not unlikely to be em- 
ployed as a pretext for disregarding the claims of 
the needy, by those who give, without any distinct 
conception, or any lively feeling, of their obligations 
to cultivate that grace. And besides, the most 
established and experienced Christians need to 
be reminded from time to time of the grounds and 
motives of a duty, to violate which there are so 
many temptations in the natural selfishness of the 
human heart, in the incessant tendency that we all 
feel to pursue our own interests, and to seek 
our own gratifications, without regard to the in- 
terests and gratifications of others ; in those party 
jealousies and religious prejudices which too fre- 
quently arrest the current of beneficence ; and 
sometimes in the failings, and vices, and ingratitude 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7. 



of the individuals who have been the largest par- 
ticipators of our bounty. 

But there is something' more important still to 
be stated. I am speaking, not merely for the sake 
of such as need your help, but for your own sake, 
and with a view to the improvement of your 
personal character, and to your fitness to appear 
at the bar of God. And for this purpose, let 
me remind you that it is not enough that you 
give, however liberally, to your necessitous breth- 
ren. By all means do this, for without it, you can 
have no just pretensions to charity at all. But 
remember, that you have to do with God, much 
more than you have to do with man. Man receives 
your bounty, and he is benefited and relieved by it, 
whether you have bestowed it from worthy or u& 
worthy considerations. But God sees the heart, 
and will accept of no service which does not pro- 
ceed from that source, and which is not regulated 
by those views and principles which he himself has 
prescribed. And, we insist on this the more, because 
we are referring to the account you are hereafter to 
render. Important, indeed, and indispensable is the 
virtue of almsgiving ; but important and indispens- 
able though it be, that will not secure for it the 
divine approbation, nor render it a qualification for 
the heavenly state, in whatever form and spirit you 
may choose to exercise it, In the day of judg- 
ment, indeed, our sentence will be founded on the 
character of our works, as good or bad, and par- 
ticularly upon that branch of moral conduct which 
is here specified. But then, it will be upon our 



SER. 7- 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE, 



175 



works as connected with our inward views and dis- 
positions. As every secret deed will be brought 
to light, and form a part of the account we have to 
render, so will every secret thought be made mani- 
fest—every principle upon which we proceeded — 1 
every motive by which we were actuated — every 
feeling and view which had any share in the go- 
vernment of our life and conversation. And upon 
these, much more than upon the external aspect, 
or literal meaning, or natural effects of our actions 
themselves, the fate of every one of us will then de- 
pend ; so that if our kindness to the poor has 
originated in nothing better than a desire to relieve 
our own feelings, by getting rid of their importuni- 
ty, or in a thirst for a good reputation among our 
fellow-men, or in the vain project of bartering our 
money for the kingdom of heaven, as if benevo- 
lence were the price of immortality, or in any other 
mistaken or corrupt sentiment whatsoever — upon 
what principle, I would ask, either of reason or of 
scripture, can we expect to be pronounced " the 
blessed of the Lord," and to be invited to " the in- 
heritance of a kingdom prepared for us from the 
foundation of the world ?" The hope of the for- 
malist, of the hypocrite, of the unsanctified aims- 
giver, may accompany him through life, and go 
down with him to the grave, but when he appears 
before the omniscient God, who searches the heart, 
and judges righteous judgment, it perishes for ever. 
Let us be careful, then, that we have the spirit, as 
well as the practice of charity— that we give with 



176 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. SEIl, 7. 

a willing mind as well as with a courteous hand — ■ 
that every benevolent deed we perform be the 
fruit of a lively faith, and thus contribute its part 
to that holy character which God requires us to 
maintain, and which will fit us for judgment and 
eternity. 

I have still to add, that the charity to which so 
much importance is attached, and which is held to 
be so absolutely requisite, with a view to future 
judgment, is distinguished by its unwearied activity, 
and the constant and minute adaptation of its cares 
to the various necessities of those whom it endea- 
vours to relieve. It is not enough to cherish com- 
passionate feelings — to utter the language of sensi- 
bility and tenderness when we speak of the chil- 
dren of suffering and of sorrow — to address to 
them the common-places of sympathy, and say, 
" be ye warmed and be ye filled. 5 ' We must com- 
municate to them according to their need, and 
study to be substantially useful. It is not enough, 
that we bestow money upon those who need our 
aid, and who ask it, or that we confine ourselves to 
one species of benevolence, when it is in our power 
to indulge in many. We must " do good as we 
have opportunity we must <£ give alms of such 
things as we have and when we are obliged to 
say to the poor supplicant " silver and gold have I 
none," we must be ready to add, " but such as I 
have, give I unto thee." It is not enough that we 
minister of our substance to the destitute. We 
must not withhold our personal exertions, nor 



ser. 7» 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



177 



grudge our time, when these are necessary for 
carrying on the labour of love : We must " search 
out the cause that we know not ;" and 44 go about 
doing good." Nor is it enough, that we be kind 
and helpful to those of our own kindred, or of our 
own sect, or of our own neighbourhood. We must 
listen to the cry of nature, and to the admonition of 
the gospel, in behalf of all who stand in need of 
our beneficence ; extending it to the stranger who is 
cast upon our care, from whatever country he may 
come, and whatever form of worship he may have em- 
braced, and even to those who, yielding to tempta- 
tions from which we have been providentially de- 
livered, have become the victims of their own folly, 
and are thereby involved in misfortune and penury ; 
for God " has made of one blood all the nations 
that dwell upon the face of the earth," and he 
" causeth his sun to shine upon the evil and the 
good, and his rain to descend upon the just and the 
unjust." All these things are comprehended in 
the language which the judge will hold to the 
righteous, and should determine us to be active, and 
disinterested, and generous, and unwearied, in pro- 
moting the relief of our poor afflicted brethren* 
44 I was an hungered and ye gave me meat ; I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, 
and ye took me in." 

" The Lord," says the Psalmist, 44 preserveth the 
stranger." This has been his memorial in all gene- 
rations. The stranger has ever been the object of 
his peculiar care, watched over by his providence, — 

N 



178 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7. 



protected by his law, privileged by his mercy, re- 
commended and committed to the hospitality of his 
people. Under the Mosaic economy, strangers had 
particular immunities granted to them. The Jews 
were enjoined, by special commandments, to show 
them kindness. Divine indignation was denounced 
against such as should treat them with cruelty, or 
subject them to oppression. And, divine appeals 
were repeatedly made, to the sympathies of those 
among whom they dwelt, reminding them of the 
hardships and severities which they themselves had 
experienced in a foreign land. 

This minute guardianship of the stranger was the 
more necessary among the Jews, because they were 
chosen and separated from the rest of mankind ; 
the arrangements of that polity under which they 
were placed, were unavoidably of an exclusive 
character ; and the natural tendency of the whole 
system was to render them reserved, and jealous, 
and illiberal, towards all who did not belong 
to their commonwealth. God, in his wisdom 
and in his mercy, did much to counteract this 
spirit, by the declarations and the provisions to 
which I have alluded. But he did not neglect the 
safety and the comfort of the stranger, nor leave 
him without a token of his compassionate concern, 
even after the free and generous dispensation of the 
gospel was introduced. " The middle wall of par- 
tition being broken down" between Jew and Gen- 
tile — men of every kindred being invited to the 
faith of Christ and the hope of immortality — and 



SER. 7« 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



179 



those that accept of the invitation being taught to 
look on the whole family of mankind with the eye 
of benevolence and of kindliness, there was less oc- 
casion for any authoritative enactments, or any ex- 
plicit precepts, in order to preserve the stranger 
from injury and contempt, and to secure for him 
what the helplessness of his circumstances might 
require. Yet, even thus favourably situated, we 
find him selected and marked out as an object of 
Christian regard. Not only does he share in those 
common sympathies, which we are taught to feel 
towards all our fellow-men, and practically to mani- 
fest, by an adaptation of our treatment to their va- 
rious necessities ; but he is particularly specified, and 
pressed on our benevolent attentions, lest he should 
be overlooked amidst the multiplicity of those claims 
which are addressed to our charity, or despised as 
an intermeddler with those bounties to which our 
kinsmen, our fellow-citizens, and our compatriots 
have the first and strongest title. In the beautiful 
and affecting parable of the man who went down 
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, 
we are instructed to consider every man as " our 
neighbour," however strange he may be to us 
as to his country or his creed, and however ob- 
noxious to those resentments which ancient rival- 
ships and recent provocations may have engendered 
in our minds. The precept given by an inspired 
apostle is, that we " be not forgetful to enter- 
tain strangers :" in which the combined influence 
of affectionate exhortation and strict commandment 



180 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7. 



is employed to banish the suspicions and aversions 
with which we might otherwise look on these can- 
didates for our pity and our aid — to make us think 
more of the ties by which a common nature and a 
common fate have bound them to us, than of the 
local distance and adventitious differences which 
have heretofore separated them from us — and to 
persuade us to receive them with such cordial feel- 
ing, and to treat them with such disinterested kind- 
ness, as that, though we cannot charm them with 
the blessings and enjoyments of the home which 
they have left, we may yet help them in their des- 
titution, and cheer them in their sadness. And then 
our blessed Saviour assumes to himself the character 
of a stranger — enters into all his loneliness, and 
anxieties, and griefs — gives him an identity of inte- 
rests and of feelings with his own—declares that he 
will at last recompense the good, and avenge the 
evil, done to him, as if they were done to himself — 
and thus invests him, as it were, with the sacred- 
ness of his own person, and fences him round with 
the awful and affecting solemnities of eternal judg- 
ment. " I was a stranger., and ye took me in. — 
Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these my 
brethren, ye did it unto me." — " I was a stranger, 
and ye took me not in. — Inasmuch as ye did it not 
to the least of these my brethren, ye did it not un- 
to me." " And the wicked shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
eternal," 

Need I say more, my friends, to bespeak your 



SER. 7. 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



181 



compassion in behalf of the stranger, when all the 
pleadings of common humanity for him, are thus 
enforced upon your hearts by the instructions, the 
authority, and the example of your God and Re- 
deemer ? No ; instead of requiring farther argu- 
ment or entreaty, you will only wait, or seek, for 
cases in which you may practically indulge the com- 
passion which you have learnt to feel. And one of 
the most affecting and most urgent of these cases 
we this day bring before you. The Spanish and 
Italian refugees are a class of strangers for whom 
we can confidently solicit your bounty. They have 
already excited public sympathy, and received pub- 
lic aid. And although, by the efforts of our bene- 
volent countrymen in the South, their wants have 
been greatly relieved, and their sufferings greatly 
alleviated, yet their number is still so large, and 
their situation still so distressful, and their prospects 
still so gloomy and discouraging, that, knowing but 
a half of what they are doomed to endure, you can- 
not, be your affections ever so cold, and your habits 
ever so parsimonious, withhold from them your 
commiseration and your alms. 

Think of them merely as poor strangers. There 
is something melancholy and touching in the con- 
dition of a stranger, even when he is not reduced 
in his worldly circumstances, and in no danger of 
suffering neglect from those among whom he so- 
journs. But more melancholy and touching by far 
is his condition, when he is visited with the thou- 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7» 



sand ills of poverty. Poverty by itself is pitiable ; 
but how aggravated are its pains, and how intoler- 
able its burden, when it falls to the lot of the stran- 
ger — when the two calamities are united in dismal 
fellowship — when the individual who would have 
been made sorrowful by either, is overwhelmed by 
both ! Would not yon pity such a man ? — Pity, 
then, the refugees, whose cause I now plead, for 
they are poor strangers. 

But think of them also as strangers, whose 
poverty is the deeper, and the more cruel, in consi- 
deration of the state from which they have fallen. 
They were not previously accustomed to hardship 
or to indigence, which would have made their pri- 
vations less keenly felt, and more easily borne. 
Sad and mournful is the contrast between what they 
were and what they are, which rises up to their re- 
collection, and presses itself on their experience. 
The)' were men of rank — men of opulence — men 
of authority — men of education and accomplishment 
— whose cup was full, whose mountain stood strong, 
who were not prepared for the bitterness of adver- 
sity, and never dreamed of coming ruin. And now, 
they have none of the comforts — they have scarcely 
the necessaries of life ; they have not even a roof 
to shelter them, nor garments to clothe them, nor 
bread to eat, except what is procured by the small pit- 
tance which they earn with the sweat of their brow, 
or the smaller pittance still which they receive from 
die hand of charity, that they, and their wives, and 



SER. 7. 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



183 



their little ones may not perish for want. And 
when you thus contemplate their fate — and when 
you look at it, and see it in the light of their former 
prosperity, — is it possible that your souls should not 
be softened and melted into pity, and that, out of 
your abundance, you should not give liberally for 
the relief of their pressing wants, and for the heal- 
ing of their broken hearts ? 

Think again of the causes which have sent them 
among you, in all the humiliation and misery of 
poor fallen strangers. They were driven from their 
own country. There was neither comfort nor 
safety for them there. The iron hand of despot- 
ism oppressed them. The terrors of persecution 
were arrayed against them. The suspicions of the 
tyrant and the priest fell upon them. And to es- 
cape the degradation, the imprisonment, or the 
death, that awaited them, they became exiles from 
the land that gave them birth, and from the scenes 
with which their earliest thoughts and tenderest 
feelings were associated, and fled for protection to 
a foreign shore. And need I say, that in propor- 
tion as you detest the spirit which cannot brook 
one sigh for freedom, one expression of liberal opi- 
nion, one effort to raise man above the level of a 
slave, by imparting to him the benefits of useful 
knowledge ; and which is ever breathing out cruelty 
and slaughter against the objects of its hate, because 
they are the best friends, and the most zealous pro- 
moters, of the civilization and the happiness of our 
race ; in proportion as you detest that intolerant 



184 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



SER. 7- 



and desolating- spirit, will yon compassionate the 
poor fallen strangers whose cause I advocate ; for 
they are the victims whom it has sacrificed to its 
despotic and superstitions lusts, and they are made 
wretched and cast upon your benevolence, because 
it is rampant, sanguinary, and remorseless in its 
hostility to the cause of liberty and truth. 

And think, once more, of the testimony which 
these forlorn outcasts, these destitute strangers, 
have given to the character of our country, by 
throwing themselves so confidently into the arms 
of its protection. They had long been accustomed 
to admire its independence, its valour, its genero- 
sity, its moral as well as its political greatness ; per- 
haps in the secret musings of their hearts on that 
deliverance to which they aspired, and on the doubt- 
ful issue of that struggle in which they might 
one day engage, they turned their eye to it as the 
favourer of the free, and the refuge of the oppress- 
ed : and when the hour of trial, and discomfiture, 
and disappointment came, and in their own beloved 
homes — for home is dear even under a tyrant's 
sway — they could find no shelter from the storm of 
persecution, and no rest even for the sole of their 
foot, they came to us at once in the fulness of their 
sorrows, and in the fulness of their confidence, and 
doubted not to find their hopes realized in the suffi- 
ciency of our guardianship, in the warmth of our 
sympathy, and in the outgoings of our benevolence. 
And is it for a moment to be supposed, that you 
will frustrate, or mock, the expectations which they 



SER. 7- CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 185 

have so fondly cherished ; that you will discourage 
or crush the sentiments of reverence and affection 
with which they have regarded our nation ; that in 
the apathy with which you behold, or in the nig- 
gardliness with which you relieve their urgent ne- 
cessities, you will send them away with the im- 
pression, that our fame is greater than our merit, 
and that, though you have bread enough and to 
spare, you grudge even a morsel to those who 
have come from afar, and are hungry and dis- 
tressed, because they too fondly loved the distinc- 
tions in which you so proudly rejoice ? This can- 
not be supposed : you will not be indifferent to 
their case ; you will not be stinted in your alms- 
giving ; you will not merely do as much, or give as 
much, as may save you from the charge of cruelty ; 
but having your charity kindled into a more ardent 
flame, by the attestation which these poor strangers 
have given to the character of your country, and by 
the dependence which they have so freely, and so 
nobly, placed upon its virtue and its magnanimity, 
you will abound in the labour of love to which vou 
are now called ; and gi ve " as you have received of 
the Lord." 

4 6 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers," says 
an apostle, " for thereby some have entertained 
angels unawares." Expect not such an event li- 
terally — but you may expect the blessing which it 
implies. That expression of charity to which you 
are now invited will be useful in many respects, on 



186 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. SER. 7. 



which, however, your time will not allow me to ex- 
patiate as I could wish. 

By engaging in it, you will assist in improving, 
liberalizing, and exalting the national character — 
because you give exercise to that spirit of vital re- 
ligion, of enlightened philanthropy, and of generous 
freedom, in which its deeds of highest and purest 
worth originate, and in which its only true and 
permanent greatness consists. 

You also help to secure for your country the 
countenance and favour of Him on whom the sta- 
bility of its fortunes, and the growth of its pros- 
perity, must ever depend ; for as he reveals himself 
to be the Preserver of the stranger, he must smile, 
with approbation, and surround, with a mighty and 
a gracious arm, that people who honour him by 
their acts of beneficence and tenderness to that 
class of his destitute offspring on whom he has be- 
stowed so signal an evidence of his regard. 

And you will also add to the reputation and in- 
fluence of your country — a reputation, grounded, 
not on achievements of ambitious and bloody hero- 
ism, but on deeds which render man the brother, 
and the friend, of man, and which adorn communi- 
ties as well as individuals, with solid and imperish- 
able honours — influence, which resting in the 
gratitude of those who have experienced, and in 
the admiration of those who have witnessed, what 
is done for the stranger and the exile, will be suc- 
cessfully employed in the spirit of that mighty and 



SER. 7- CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



187 



enlarged benevolence which secured it, for advanc- 
ing- the interests of freedom, and civilization, and 
Christianity throughout the world. 

Finally, you will forward the improvement of 
your own character, and augment the happiness of 
your own destiny. Commiseration and kindness 
to strangers are essential parts of your Christian 
vocation. And, a better opportunity of practising 
these virtues you can scarcely hope to enjoy. Never 
omit an opportunity of doing good. The duty is 
laid upon you — perform it. The privilege is at 
your door — gladly embrace, and liberally use it. 
You may not know the heart of a destitute stranger 
in temporal things— but if you know it in spiritual 
things, the motive will be still more powerful and 
constraining. If you know what it is to have been 
once 44 an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, 
and a stranger to the covenant of promise," but to 
be now " a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the 
household of God," you will have a heart to feel, 
with tenderest sympathy, for the strangers who 
now solicit your support ; and you will be conscious 
of an irresistible impulse to do, for the bodies and 
the outward comfort of these poor aliens and 
exiles, what He has so mercifully done for your 
souls. And when you put your hand into that 
store out of which you are to draw the supply that 
you intend for the oppressed, persecuted, destitute 
refugees, let your faith look forward to Christ as 
seated on the throne of judgment, and listen to 



188 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. SER. J. 

him, as saying- to the righteous, " I was a strang- 
er and ye took me in. Inasmuch as ye did it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
did it unto me. Enter ye unto the joy of your 
Lord." 



189 



SERMON VIII. 



THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS EXAGGERATED 
BY THE ENEMIES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

1 TIMOTHY VI. 1. 

a Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters 
worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be 
not blasphemed" 

It is objected to Christianity, which in my text 
may be considered as meant by " the name and 
doctrine of God," that many of those who pro- 
fess to be regulated by its spirit and laws, instead of 
being better, are often much worse, than other men; 
that pretending to adhere to it as a system of truth 
and righteousness, they yet frequently neglect or 
violate the duties of those relations and conditions 
in which they are placed ; that servants, for example, 
as here particularly alluded to by the apostle, bear- 
ing the name of Jesus, do notwithstanding, act un- 
faithfully and disobediently ; that the same remark 



190 



IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8. 



is applicable to individuals of every other class and 
station in civil society ; and that even some of the 
ministers of the gospel, who have studied it most, 
and should know it best, are themselves grievously 
addicted to the follies and vices of the world. 

This objection, indeed, is seldom proposed in a 
formal way by the more honest and rational oppo- 
nents of our religion ; because they could hardly 
do so^ and at the same time hope to preserve their 
reputation as philosophers, or as men of sense. 
But the objection is, nevertheless, substantially con- 
tained, and artfully urged, in those sneering attacks 
which they delight to make on the character of 
misguided zealots, and in that ill-dissembled eager- 
ness and affected regret with which they proclaim 
the failings of the righteous. It is employed as a 
triumphant answer to all our arguments in favour 
of Christianity, by the ignorant, the thoughtless, 
and the profligate, who are either incapable of 
reasoning, or unwilling to reflect deeply on the 
subject, and who form a large proportion of the 
unbelieving class of mankind. And it will fre- 
quently obtrude itself on the notice, and distress 
the feelings, of well-intentioned Christians, when 
they see the unsanctified deportment of those who 
call themselves by the name of the Saviour, and 
from whom they are naturally led to expect the 
brightest examples of piety and virtue. On these 
accounts, it may be proper to consider the objection 
somewhat particularly, that we may be satisfied 
how much reason our adversaries have to be asham- 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



191 



ed of it, and how very little reason we have to 
yield to its influence, or to be afraid of its effects 
on the issue of the great controversy in which we 
are engaged, as those who are " fighting the good 
fight of faith." In the present discourse, we shall 
confine our attention to a preliminary point, which 
is of considerable importance in its bearing on the 
question to be discussed. We maintain that the 
alleged fact, though too frequently realized, both in 
our own conduct, and in the conduct of other pro- 
fessing Christians, is far less prevalent and far less 
formidable than it is usually represented to be. 
And this we shall endeavour to illustrate in a va- 
riety of particulars. 

1. In the first place, then, the persons by whom 
the objection is adduced, seem, in many cases, to be 
influenced by a determination to censure, with or 
without reason, the conduct of Christ's professed 
followers. Whatever aspect we put on, and what- 
ever deportment we maintain, they must discover, 
or imagine, something which they may use as a 
pretext for personal reproach, and which they 
may ultimately level against the doctrine or prin- 
ciples that we hold. If we are grave, they ac- 
cuse us of being morose and gloomy. If we are 
cheerful, then we are light and joyous spirits, hav- 
ing as little seriousness and as much wantonness 
as themselves. If we reprove them for the impiety 
with which they insult our ears, they traduce us 
as rude and officious zealots, who are strangers to 
the courtesy, and foes to the intercourse, of social 

3 



192 IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER, 8. 

life. If we find it expedient to overlook the pro* 
faneness or indecency of which they have been 
guilty in our presence, they instantly construe our 
silence into an approval of their licentiousness, and 
set us down as willing- associates in their iniquity. 
If we engage in the pursuits of industry with vi- 
gour, or assert with firmness any of our temporal 
rights which have been unjustly attacked, they say 
we are covetous, and worldly minded, and love 
gain rather than godliness. If we exhibit in 
these things, any degree of sanctification and self- 
denial, then it is all a pretence ; we are driven by 
necessity, or influenced by ostentation ; and to the 
baseness of an avaricious spirit, we have added the 
odious vice of hypocrisy. In this way, and in vari- 
ous other respects, they criticise and misinterpret 
our character ; and every remark terminates, as 
might be expected, in a significant sneer at that re- 
ligion, which, above all others, was designed to 
make men virtuous and happy. 

That we are actually, and in many instances, 
treated in this manner by unbelievers, it may not 
indeed be easy to prove by any deduction of parti- 
culars. But the fact must have come within the 
experience and observation of every person who 
has ever mixed with the enemies of the gospel. 
And truly this conduct of theirs is neither unnatu- 
ral nor unprecedented. It is not unnatural, for 
it corresponds exactly with their ignorance of our 
peculiar views, and with that ungenerous wish to 
subvert our faith from which it evidently proceeds, 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



193 



and which is seldom very scrupulous about the sac- 
rifices that it will make to accomplish its object. 
And, it is not unprecedented, for it was long ago 
exemplified in the case of the Jews, who were 
pleased neither with the suitable austerity of the 
Baptist, nor with the condescension and familiarity 
of Jesus, and consequently entertained a prejudice 
against the gospel which proved fatal to themselves 
and to their country. " Whereunto," said Christ, 
' ( shall I liken this generation ? It is like unto 
children sitting in the markets, and calling unto 
their fellows, and saying, we have piped unto you, 
and ye have not danced : we have mourned unto you, 
and ye have not lamented. For John came, nei- 
ther eating nor drinking, and they say, he hath a 
devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, 
and they say, behold, a man gluttonous, and a wine- 
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." 

With such adversaries as these, there is no con- 
tending with success : we have no chance with 
them ; for act as we please, let us be as holy and 
irreproachable as we may, they will so misconstrue 
what we say and do, as to convert good into evil, 
right into wrong, innocence into guilt ; and then, 
upon an invention of their own with respect to our 
behaviour, they found a reproach against the re- 
ligion we profess. But even when they discover 
real faults in us, their mode of judging is still cha- 
racterised by the same want of candour, for 

2. We remark, in the second place, that the 
fact which gives rise to the objection we are con- 

o 



194 IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8. 

sidering, is not unfrequently exaggerated, by the 
fault of an individual being transferred and im- 
puted to the whole class to which he belongs. If 
any Christian, especially one who is distinguished 
by religious zeal, or who holds a sacred office, 
yield to temptation, and act an unworthy part, the 
eye of our enemies is quick to discover, and their 
tongue eager to proclaim it. And, were they to 
confine their censure to the real offender, allowing 
that censure to be as severe as he deserves, though 
we could not, perhaps, admire its charity, we might 
not dispute its justice. But it generally happens, 
that they regard the maxims neither of charity nor 
of justice on such occasions. While they are merci- 
less in the strictures which they direct against the 
individual, they wantonly confound the innocent 
with the guilty ; and, by a sweeping indictment, 
charge his fault upon the whole of his Christian 
brethren. Upon his personal delinquency, they 
found a libel against men who never perhaps heard 
of his name ; and who, while they might charitably 
lament, would yet scorn to patronise, his errors. 
"This is the way," they confidently assert, "thisisthe 
way in which Christians act : this is the way in 
which the ministers of the gospel conduct themselves: 
this is a specimen of the influence which that re- 
ligion has upon its votaries." In these broad and 
universal terms, they make the fault of a single 
member, characteristic of the whole community to 
which he belongs ; as if the responsibility of every 
man were not, in fairness and in truth, exclusively 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



195 



limited to his own conduct ; or as if the invisible 
church of Christ would authorize any one to be its 
moral representative. 

This, it must be allowed, is not a very accu- 
rate or candid mode of judging ; but it is ex- 
tremely prevalent, with respect to the various 
professions of ordinary life, as well as to the pro- 
fession of Christianity. And though it can never 
be commended, since it is intrinsically wrong, yet 
it might be overlooked in the latter case, as it 
often is in the former, were it not in this in- 
stance carried to a most dangerous length, and em- 
ployed as a means of disparaging the gospel, and 
ruining immortal souls. The ultimate aim is to 
bring Christianity into disrepute — to " blaspheme 
the name and the doctrine of God and in order 
to accomplish what is thus intended, the aberra- 
tions of every individual Christian are spoken of, 
as descriptive of all who have embraced the reli- 
gion of Jesus, and as a sort of universal and neces- 
sary accompaniment to the faith and character of his 
disciples. 

3. It may be observed in the third place, that 
the fact of which we are speaking is often exagger- 
ated, by considering one part of the Christian's 
conduct as a test of his whole character. No man, 
indeed, can be regarded as truly good, who wilful- 
ly and habitually violates any one of the precepts 
which he believes to issue from divine authority. 
I speak here, however, not of habitual, but of de- 
tached and occasional, transgressions of the divine 



196 



IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8. 



law, which, it cannot be denied, hare been, and daily 
are, committed by Christians of the very highest 
attainments. Xow, these being 1 inconsistent with 
the strong profession of the Christian ; appearing 
more enormous, because they attach to one who 
has been in the practice of reproving others ; and 
being, perhaps, independently of these aggravating 
circumstances, abundantly flagrant and injurious in 
themselves, they strike the feelings and the imagi- 
nation forcibly, and are allowed so to fill up the 
view, that the virtues and graces with which they 
are associated, are forgotten or disregarded. It is 
not considered that the best of men cannot be per- 
fect, and that, from the corruption of their nature, 
and the strength of external temptation, they will 
be sometimes betrayed into criminal indulgence. 
It is not considered by what bitter regret and self- 
abasement, such indulgence is succeeded, and what 
watchfulness, and mortification, and holy jealousy, 
it produces in their future life. It is not consider- 
ed, how carefully they have avoided a thousand 
vices into which multitudes around them are plung- 
ing every day ; how faithfully they have studied 
to discharge their personal and social duties ; and 
how many have profited by their benevolence, their 
instructions, and their example. All this is as 
much forgotten as if it had no existence ; or it is 
recollected only for the purpose of heightening the 
colour of their guilt. The splendour of their vir- 
tues is obscured by an individual spot, which ma- 
lice or misconception has magnified far beyond it> 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



197 



real size. And their character is appreciated, not 
by the tone of their principles, in connexion with 
the habitual tenor of their conduct, but by a single 
vicious action, of which their mind is utterly abhor- 
rent, which they bewail with unfeigned sorrow, 
and which a candid eye would trace to those im- 
perfections of the heart, and those infelicities of 
condition, which adhere to humanity in its best 
estate. 

It is in this manner that many of the enemies of 
religion decide, upon the merits of its sincerest vo- 
taries, and, through that false medium, upon its 
own pretensions to belief and submission. They 
look at the bad, rather than the good, qualities of 
the Christian ; and speak as if one of the former 
overbalanced the brightest assemblage of the latter, 
and deprived them of all their claims on our appro- 
bation. Talk to these men of any individual, who 
is a Christian in his practice, as well as in his pro- 
fession ; tell them of his piety, his humility, his pa- 
tience, his integrity, his charity ; point him out as 
one who is a credit to religion, and an ornament 
to society ; and they will instantly revert to some 
unholy action which, in an evil hour, he had once 
committed, or to some circumstances of his charac- 
ter which have a suspicious appearance ; they dwell 
upon these with relentless severity, and conclude 
that he who is guilty of such things, whatever he 
may be in other respects, cannot be regarded as a 
person of real worth. Look into their writings, 
and you will perceive the same want of candour 



198 



IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8. 



and discrimination, when they treat of those reli- 
gious characters which are delineated in scripture. 
The unmanly equivocation of Abraham, the aggra- 
vated crime of David, and the unhappy strife be- 
tween Paul and Barnabas, are held out as the cha- 
racteristical features of these eminent persons : 
that faith, and piety, and humility, and zeal for the 
glory of God and the best interests of mankind, by 
which they were severally distinguished, go for no- 
thing in the estimate that is formed ; and the soli- 
tary deeds of sin which they themselves never at- 
tempted to justify or to palliate, and which the Holy 
Spirit hath recorded for our instruction and warn- 
ing, are employed to depreciate or to annihilate 
their real worth, and to reduce them to a level with 
those, who make no pretensions to the love and the 
practice of religion. Thus it often happens that, 
contrary to the way in which our opponents judge 
in all other cases, contrary to the way in which 
they themselves would choose to be judged, con- 
trary to the way in which reason or candour per- 
mits us to judge of any man, they make one un- 
worthy action of the Christian descriptive of his 
whole character, and an index to point out to us, 
with unerring certainty, what he really and essen- 
tially is. 

4. In the fourth place, the fact by which unbe- 
lievers are furnished with the objection we refer to, 
is frequently amplified by a too rigid comparison of 
the Christian's conduct with the religion in which 
he professes to believe. Christianity, they well 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



199 



know, prescribes a course of action the most pure 
and holy that can be imagined. It admits of no 
violation, however inconsiderable, of the duty 
which we owe to God, to our neighbour, or to our- 
selves. It dictates a habitual abhorrence of every 
thing that is sinful, and a habitual devoted affection 
for every thing that is good. It commands us to 
" purify ourselves, even as God himself is pure." 

Such is the religion, to the truth of which we 
have declared our assent ; such the religion, by 
which we profess to be regulated ; such the religion 
which we recommend to the faith and obedience of 
others. Hence our opponents conclude, either 
wilfully or by mistake, that our conduct must be 
actually immaculate in its whole tenor, and in all 
its constituent parts. They do not inquire whether 
this state of moral perfection be the constant object 
of our desires and our endeavours ; but whether 
we have actually attained to it. They look at us 
in the spotless mirror of the gospel : they find, of 
course, not only certain features, but the general 
aspect of our character, to be extremely defective ; 
nay, its blemishes and deformities become more 
prominent, from that blaze of unshaded purity in 
which it is reflected ; and, judging by this appear- 
ance, they pronounce us to be inconsistent, hypo- 
critical, and base. 

Now, it would be fair enough to judge us by the 
standard to which we appeal, if they would take 
care at the same time to apply it under the direc- 
tion of those rules, which the very nature and cir- 



200 



IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 



cumstances of the case require to be observed i 
such an important trial. In that case we shoul 
have no right to complain ; we should abide the r 
suit, whatever it might be. But we justly co 
plain, that the)' disregard those rules, and expe 
from us what, according to the test by which the 
try us, it is absolutely impossible we should ever b 
able to exhibit. They forget that the morality 
the gospel must be perfect, because it is prescribe 
by a perfect Being, and that, had it been othe 
wise, they would very soon have discovered it t 
be unworthy of its alleged author. They forg 
that moral imperfection is an attribute of our falle 
nature, and must therefore mingle in all our a 
tempts to comply with the divine will, and to im* 
tate the divine character. They forget that thi 
doctrine is not only acknowledged in the Christia 
system, but is the very occasion of that system bein 
planned, and the very foundation on which it is 
built. They forget that the promises and blessings 
of the gospel are never said to be conferred on 
those, who are as holy as the divine law requires ; 
but on those who, amidst the frailties, and the cor- 
ruption, and the sin which often mark their path, 
are seeking for heaven through justification by the 
grace of God in Christ Jesus, through sanctification 
by his Holy Spirit, and through a patient continu- 
ance in well-doing. To all these things they pay 
no attention, although such considerations are es- 
sentially requisite for enabling them to form a 
" righteous judgment." They confine their view 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



201 



to an unqualified contrast between the moral pre- 
cepts of the gospel, and the actual state of Christian 
character ; and because the latter does not come 
up to the former, or approach very near to it, or in 
other words, because they are not gratified with 
the existence of that which they have no title to 
expect, they can find no Christians who are truly 
and sincerely good. 

And they fall the more readily into this error, 
by thinking of their own attainments. They, too, 
have a code of morals, by which they affect to be 
guided : but it is so very indulgent to all their fa- 
vourite passions ; it so uniformly consults their 
pleasure, their inclinations, and their temporal in- 
terests ; it has so little of rigorous or authoritative 
injunction belonging to it ; and it abounds so much 
in saving clauses, that to conform oneself to it 
strictly, is one of the easiest things in the world. 
Its standard, indeed, is so miserably low, that in 
the present state of criminal law and of social inter- 
course, it is easier for them, methinks, to rise above 
than to fall below it. And, because they are con- 
scious of keeping up to this standard of behaviour 
which they have prescribed to themselves, they 
have no allowance to make to the Christian for 
coming short of the standard which is prescribed to 
him by the word of God, and regard his deficiency 
as a proof that he is not what he pretends to be. 

It may be observed also, that to the injurious ef- 
fects of this mode of judging, the ministers of reli- 
gion are more particularly exposed. They not 



QOQ IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8- 

only make the same general professions with ordi- 
nary Christians, but take a leading part in defend- 
ing and propagating the gospel. They preach it in 
its native purity. They remonstrate with the un- 
believing. They reprove the disobedient. They 
insist upon a faithful performance of duty, and for- 
bid the least indulgence to sinful appetite. Hence 
their failings are more ostensible and striking. A 
kind of involuntary resentment against them is 
awakened in the minds of those whom they address. 
These are happy to find an excuse so specious for 
their own immoralities. The avowed enemies of 
religion seize this opportunity of urging their fa- 
vourite topic of priestcraft and hypocrisy. And 
thus, because ministers are not exactly and altoge- 
ther what they teach others to be, occasion is taken 
to question their sincerity, or to deny that they 
have a good conscience. It may be said, indeed, 
to such persons, ' ' We are men of like passions 
with yourselves ; we have the same corrupt nature ; 
we live in the same wicked world ; we are assault- 
ed by the same spiritual foes ; we are exposed to 
the same powerful temptations. We cannot there- 
fore set a perfect example of the pure and faultless 
morality of the gospel, which we are nevertheless 
bound to preach, by the most sacred obligations of 
fidelity to God, and of love to you." This reasoning 
is very obvious, and to a reflecting mind, irresis- 
tible. And yet, how often does it happen that by 
a rigorous comparison of the conduct which minis- 
ters recommend, with the conduct which they ex- 



SEIl. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



203 



hibit — a comparison which gives to their very best 
actions an unfavourable aspect, and converts their 
most inconsiderable faults into great and flagrant 
guilt — they are convicted of absolute worthlessness, 
or thrust down to a much lower degree in the scale 
of character, than they are fairly entitled to hold. 
And being thus judged according to a most fallaci- 
ous appearance, they are doomed to suffer the evil 
of a most unrighteous judgment. 

In our next discourse on this subject, we shall 
endeavour to show, that the misconduct of Chris- 
tians, which our enemies are so eager to lay hold 
of and exaggerate, affords no argument against the 
truth and excellence of the gospel, and that, on 
this account, they have no reason for " blasphem- 
ing the name and the doctrine of God." In the 
mean time, we shall offer a few remarks in refer- 
ence to what has been already said. 

1. And in the first place, let it not be thought, 
that we mean to plead for any undue or unlawful 
indulgence to the disciples of Jesus. In that case 
we should, indeed, inflict a cruel blow on the in- 
terests of religion, and be surrendering the very 
cause we profess to vindicate. The gospel is alto- 
gether " a doctrine according to godliness" and 
purity : its very purpose, as well as its whole ten- 
dency, is to destroy the ascendency of sin, and re- 
store man to the holy image of his Maker ; and to 
say that any of its votaries may innocently neglect 
any duty, or taste of one criminal gratification, 
would be equally untrue and pernicious. But our 



204 IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8* 

object has been to point out the unfairness of its 
adversaries, in giving- false and exaggerated views 
of those errors, into which real Christians are be- 
trayed, in spite of all their resolutions and vigil- 
ance and efforts, in order to remove one ground 
on which occasion is taken to " blaspheme the 
name and doctrine of God." After all, though 
there were to be no exaggeration in the case, every 
fault committed by any of Christ's followers, will 
be taken advantage of to speak evil of the gospel. 
But it is not just, either to the gospel or to the fol- 
lowers of Christ, that Christian conduct should be 
misapprehended or misrepresented, or judged of 
uncandidly. And our design has been to guard 
against these evils ; not to apologize for the sins of 
believers, but to prevent them from being so mag- 
nified or so mistaken, as to answer an infidel pur- 
pose, to which they could not otherwise have been 
made subservient. 

%, In the second place, let Christians beware 
of encouraging unbelieving and ungodly men, in 
this mode of misjudging and misrepresenting cha- 
racter. Many, through rashness, or resentment, 
or some other unjustifiable feeling, seem anxious 
not only to detect, but even to proclaim the faults 
of their brethren, and to set them forth in more 
than their real enormity or aggravations ; and 
thus without any bad intention, but as really and 
effectually as if they had such intention, they fur- 
nish those who wait and " watch for our halting" 
with an occasion to blaspheme. Now, let us careful- 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



205 



ly avoid this. It is wrong in itself ; it is uncharita- 
ble and cruel to those who are the more immediate 
objects of it ; and it is wantonly increasing those 
prejudices against the gospel which are already too 
numerous and too strong, and fortifying its enemies 
in their unbelief and hostility. At the same time, 
we must beware of carrying this tenderness too 
far. Excessive anxiety to conceal the misconduct 
of our Christian brethren, laboured attempts to 
palliate their guilt, unwillingness to condemn them 
for what is clearly and undeniably wrong, and such 
a treatment of them as they would have received 
from us had they been innocent — all this is decided- 
ly reprehensible and mischievous. Taking part to 
this extent with the offender, is too much like giving 
countenance and protection to the offence. It is, 
in some measure, identifying ourselves with those 
who are to blame. By showing so much indul- 
gence to their fault, we virtually, as it were, adopt 
and repeat it. And thus we give our adver- 
saries a double handle for " blaspheming the name 
and the doctrine of God," by giving them room for 
alleging that we have no great indignation against 
sin, provided it be committed by those who are of 
the same religious creed, and the same religious 
profession with ourselves. Let us avoid this : but, 
on the other hand, let us be careful not to give a 
deeper colouring, and not to give a wider publicity 
to the failings and misdeeds of our Christian neigh- 
bours, than the real merits of the case warrant, and 
the successful correction of the evil may require. 



206 IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 8. 

Let charity be exercised as far as is consistent with 
truth, which must be paramount to every other 
consideration. And thus, let nothing- be unneces- 
sarily, or rashly, added to the means with which 
irreligious men are already too amply provided, for 
" blaspheming the name and the doctrine of God." 

3. Lastly, let us scrupulously abstain in our 
own conduct from every thing of which advan- 
tage may be taken, for that unhallowed pur- 
pose. Whatever men may think or say of us, it 
should be our constant study to be " holy in all 
manner of conversation." But it is lawful and 
proper for us to derive a motive for cultivating that 
character, with peculiar care and diligence, from 
the effect which it may have, not merely in en- 
couraging our fellow- Christians, but also in les- 
sening both the means, and the spirit, of hostility in 
those who are inimical to the gospel. For this end, 
it becomes us to " walk in wisdom towards them 
that are without ;" to " keep a bridle on our 
tongue while the wicked are before us ;" to " ab- 
stain from the very appearance of evil and " not 
to let our good be evil spoken of." We must not, 
indeed, allow ourselves to be allured into ostenta- 
tion and hypocrisy. We must not be guilty of 
mean compliances — of sneaking compromises — of 
cowardly concealments. We must not commit any 
thing that is sinful, in order to hide a more flagrant 
iniquity, or to make others believe that we possess 
the virtues of which our conscience tells us that 
we are destitute. We must be bold, and honest, 

5 



SER. 8. 



EXAGGERATED. 



207 



and truthful. And then, so far as it can be made 
consistent with these essential qualities, we must be 
prudent and circumspect in every part of our be- 
haviour — anxious to keep ourselves free from the 
suspicion, as well as from the reality, of unrighte- 
ousness — faithful in all the duties and transactions 
of our peculiar calling, or our peculiar circumstan- 
ces — ready to make sacrifices even of what we might 
otherwise withhold, in order to prevent offence 
being taken by those who are observing us — and in 
all things, we must endeavour to " let our light so 
shine before men," that " whereas they are dis- 
posed to speak against us as evil-doers, they may, 
by our good works which they shall behold, glori- 
fy God on the day of visitation." Thus shall we 
work out our own salvation, and as far as we are 
concerned, thus shall we prevent ' ' the name and 
the work of God from being blasphemed," and pro- 
mote the influence of " pure andundefiled religion" 
among our brethren of mankind. 



208 



SERMON IX. 



THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS, NO ARGUMENT 
AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 

1 TIMOTHY vi. 1, 

" Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters 
worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not 
blasphemed." 

In a former discourse on these words, we proposed 
to consider the objection to Christianity which is 
drawn from the sinful conduct of those who have 
embraced it. We first directed your attention to 
the alleged fact on which the objection is made to 
rest, and endeavoured to show you that it is much 
exaggerated. We stated that it is exaggerated in 
these four ways ; first, by a determination to cen- 
sure, with or without reason, the conduct of Christ's 
professed followers ; secondly, by the fault of one 
Christian being transferred and imputed to Chris- 
tians in general ; thirdly, by considering one part 
of the Christian's conduct as a test of his real and 



SER. 9- NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 209 

substantial character, and fourthly, by an un candid 
and unwarranted comparison of his deportment, 
with the religion to which he appeals as the stan- 
dard of his faith and manners. 

We now go on to show, that the fact in question 
cannot be reasonably adduced to invalidate the 
truth of Christianity, or constitute any just cause 
of offence against that system of religion. 

Now, it may be observed in general, that the 
great and decisive question respecting the truth of 
Christianity, is not a question of practical effects, any 
more than it is a question of abstract speculation, 
but simply a question of fact — of fact, which is ob- 
vious to every understanding, and which offers it- 
self on the evidence of testimony. If Jesus Christ 
and his apostles wrought miracles in support of 
their mission — if we be satisfied that they were 
thus honoured with the sanction of divine authori- 
ty — then it behoves us, on every principle of reason 
and common sense, to admit the doctrine which 
they preached, as the doctrine of God. Having as- 
certained and acknowledged the reality of this cir- 
cumstance, we have ascertained and acknowledged 
that which leads us, not by any doubtful or circuit- 
ous argument, but directly and irresistibly, to re- 
ceive the gospel as a true revelation. Of the par- 
ticulars, indeed, of which this revelation consists, 
we may entertain different opinions ; but there can 
be one opinion only with regard to its existence, 
and our consequent obligation to embrace it in 
some form or other. When, therefore, various ob- 



210 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. Q. 

jections, such as the one we are discussing, are 
brought forward against it, we do not say that they 
are altogether unmeaning, or may not have a cer- 
tain effect in modifying our views of it ; but, hold- 
ing by the conviction which has been laid on the 
deep, and broad, and strong foundation of well 
attested fact, we say that they must be destitute of 
all solidity as to the purpose for which they are ad- 
duced ; they must arise from ignorance, misconcep- 
tion, or perverseriess ; and cannot, with any pro- 
priety, affect our faith. They may afford us matter 
of regret ; they may present to us difficulties that 
we cannot solve ; they may furnish us with sub- 
jects of curious or of useful inquiry ; but as rea- 
sons for rejecting Christianity, or for treating it 
with distrust, they are absolutely futile and inad- 
missible. If any one would persuade us, that we 
should not believe in the Christian religion, he 
must first prove, that God gave no miraculous at- 
testation to its Author and original propagators. 
If he succeed in his proof, the use of every subor- 
dinate argument is thereby superseded for showing 
it to be " a cunningly devised fable." But if he 
fail in this attempt, and we be still convinced, that 
it enjoyed the countenance of heaven in the way 
alluded to, it is impossible for us, in the very na- 
ture of things, to doubt of its truth, or to consider 
it as substantially false, notwithstanding all the ex- 
ceptions to it which he is able to state, however 
numerous, and however pointed. When therefore, 
it is urged that it cannot be a revelation from 



SER. 9- NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY, 211 

God, because those who have embraced it, con- 
tinue to lead wicked lives, which it must be the 
object of a divine revelation to prevent, we may 
allow the premises, but we must deny the conclu- 
sion. Men may reject what is true, and disobey 
legal authority ; this is what they do every day. 
But such rejection and disobedience neither alter 
the nature of that truth, nor destroy the legitima- 
cy of that authority. In the same way, the Christ- 
ian religion, being established on grounds which 
have the sanction of God to support them, cannot 
be deprived of its claims to our submissive regard, 
because those who profess to believe in it, do not 
act uniformly as it requires. " Let God be true, 
and every man a liar." 

The objection must suppose, that the wicked- 
ness of professing Christians arises, either from 
Christianity being directly immoral in its influence, 
or from its being deficient in power to make its 
votaries holy. 

Now, that its influence is far from being directly 
immoral will be granted, without hesitation, by 
every one, who is at all acquainted with its spirit, 
and its principles. It has a character so complete- 
ly opposite to this, that it is commonly accused 
by its enemies of being severely and unnecessari- 
ly strict, inasmuch as it requires us to conform 
ourselves to a perfect law, and to imitate a perfect 
example. Some of its doctrines, indeed, have been 
made a pretext for licentious conduct ; but this is 
only a proof that the best things are frequently 



£lg THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. Q. 

most abused ; for these doctrines, when fairly repre- 
sented and rationally understood, are all found to 
be " according* to godliness." They furnish occa- 
sion for the exercise of some grace, or motives for 
the performance of some duty, or reasons for being 
universally devoted to the will of God. They en- 
courage vice in those only who take partial views 
of them ; who seek for countenance to their iniqui- 
ties ; who are distinguished by fanaticism, or by pro- 
fligacy, or by a melancholy combination of both. 
What else, indeed, can be the character of those 
who sin because the goodness of God abounds ? And 
besides, although these doctrines, singly considered* 
should seem to countenance vicious indulgence* 
which yet must be explicitly, as it can be fairly, 
denied, yet this apparent tendency is entirely re- 
moved, when they are viewed, as they always ought 
to be viewed, in connexion with the preceptive 
part of the gospel, whose unrivalled purity is above 
all suspicion. 

The objection, therefore, must owe its force to 
the other alternative that was stated. It must sup- 
pose that Christianity is deficient in power, or not 
properly calculated to make its votaries holy. For 
the purpose of determining this point, let us first 
examine that religion, as far as the allegation goes; 
and then let us look at the effects which it has actu- 
ally produced on the moral character of its adherents. 

Wherein, then, does its alleged deficiency eon^- 
sist ? In what respect is it naturally inefficacious, 
for making men virtuous and good ? Is it defec- 



SER. 9. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 213 

tive in the plainness and energy of its precepts ? 
Nothing can be plainer, or more forcible, than the 
manner in which it proposes its rules for the regu- 
lation of our conduct. The ten commandments 
given by Moses, the discourses of our Saviour, and 
the practical parts of the Epistles, are examples of 
this which must excite the admiration of every can- 
did reader. In these, the actions we are to avoid, 
and those we are to perform, are stated so clearly, 
that " he who runs may read and they are stated 
so positively, as to exclude all doubt of their intend- 
ed obligation. And, what is particularly worthy 
of remark, the precepts of the gospel are so gener- 
ally diffused over the sacred records, that, in every 
page we peruse, they are laid down to us in some 
shape or other ; and to become acquainted with 
any part of the scripture is, in other words, to be- 
come acquainted with a certain portion of our duty. 

Again, is Christianity defective on the extent 
of its morality ? Its morality could not be more 
extensive than it actually is. There is no vice 
which it does not prohibit: there is no virtue 
which it does not enjoin. It does not forbid 
merely great and flagrant crimes ; it forbids all 
those lesser sins, which so often escape the notice 
of a corrupted world, and teaches us that no sin 
whatever can be innocently indulged. It does 
not prescribe merely the more obvious duties 
of life ; it prescribes every duty that arises from 
the various circumstances and relations in which 
we are placed It does not recommend merely 



214 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 9* 

those shining excellencies of conduct which attract 
the public gaze, and produce mighty and striking 
effects ; it recommends also, with no less earnest- 
ness, the exercise of those humble and unassuming 
graces which are equally important to the happiness 
of mankind, though seen by no eye but His, from 
whom nothing can be concealed. It does not 
inculcate merely rectitude of external deportment, 
with which so many are disposed to rest contented : 
it inculcates, with peculiar force and frequency, 
that internal purity, that habitual holiness, in all 
the thoughts and affections of the heart, which is 
the best security that can be desired for a well- 
ordered life and conversation. It does not say 
merely, that we must be virtuous and good ; it says, 
that we must always abound in godliness and good 
works, and that our path must be like " the shining 
light, which shineth more and more unto the per- 
fect day." The gospel is not defective then, in the 
extent of its morality. 

Is it defective in the principles on which its mo- 
rality is founded ? That might be affirmed, if it 
inculcated the principle of fictitious honour, which 
this moment stimulates to noble deeds, and the next 
gives its countenance to boundless dissipation and 
bloody revenge ; or the principle of sentimental 
feeling, which is but a modification of passion, and 
cannot therefore be trusted as a guide of conduct ; 
or the principle of selfishness, which teaches us to 
stifle the suggestions, and laugh at the pretensions 
of disinterested benevolence ; or the principle of 



SEE,. 9. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 215 

utility, which is so liable to mistake, and must be 
so useless to the bulk of mankind, who are incapa- 
ble of taking comprehensive views ; or any other 
principle which reaches no higher than the erring 
reason, or more unsettled passions of men, and ex- 
tends no farther than the limited interests and plea- 
sures of the world. But the principles of Christian 
morality are of a quite different and infinitely more 
perfect kind, and fitted, by their natural and unfet- 
tered operation, to form a character of unblemished 
and superlative worth. Profound regard for the 
authority of Him who made us, whose subjects we 
now are, to whom we are finally accountable, and 
who possesses the most sacred and unquestionable 
title to our unreserved homage ; firm and lively 
faith in the existence and perfections of God, and 
in the various declarations and discoveries of his 
will which are contained in the Holy Scriptures ; 
supreme love and ardent gratitude to that Being 
who is infinitely amiable in himself, and whose un- 
bounded mercy in Christ Jesus has laid us under 
obligations to obedience, the most cheerful and de- 
voted ; a heartfelt reliance upon that sacrifice of 
himself, by which the Son of God redeemed sinners 
from the guilt and the dominion of sin, and thereby 
established a claim to their homage and submission 
which it will require the services of an eternity to 
satisfy ; that charity towards all our brethren of 
mankind which, enlightened, directed, and invigor- 
ated by the revelation of the grace of God, and by 
the influences of his Holy Spirit, extends as far as 

6 



216 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. (J. 



the habitations of men are found, elevates us above 
the sordid wish of living to ourselves, and consists 
in so loving- each other as Christ has loved us ; a 
pure desire and rational hope of attaining to the 
happiness of heaven, where we shall enjoy commu- 
nion with him whose name is Holy, and have for 
our companions " the angels who kept their first 
estate," and 66 the spirits of just men made perfect," 
—these, and such as these, are the principles on 
which the gospel proposes to form the temper and 
conduct of its votaries ; and surely it cannot be 
owing to any imperfection in these principles that 
professing Christians are chargeable with acts of 
wickedness 5 for we cannot concei ve principles more 
powerfully calculated to subdue the boldest pas- 
sions, to awaken and cherish the best affections, to 
dissuade from every thing that is in the least degree 
unholy, and to secure a constant, faithful, and con- 
scientious performance of duty. 

Is Christianity defective, then, in the sanctions 
with which its laws are enforced ? These sanctions 
are fitted to awe the stoutest, and to animate the 
coldest heart. They exclude not the happiness and 
the misery that may be experienced in this mixed 
and transitory state, as the appointed consequences 
of virtue and vice in every part of God's dominions. 
But they are much more extended, interesting, and 
impressive, than any thing that can be either suf- 
fered or enjoyed in a present world, or at the hand 
of human beings. They promise the favour, and 
they threaten the displeasure, not of the mightiest 



SER. 9* NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 217 

of the children of men, but of Him who has every 
thing at his command ; who " loveth righteousness 
and hat 3th iniquity," whose " favour is better than 
life" and whose displeasure is worse than death. 
And they direct our views forward to a judgment- 
day, to a solemn reckoning, to a sentence that shall 
never be recalled, to an entrance into the regions 
of unspeakable and immortal joy, and to " everlast- 
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord and 
from the glory of his power." When such are the 
rewards which Christianity annexes to obedience, 
and such the punishments which it denounces 
against the rebellious and ungodly, no doubt, with 
respect to the sufficiency of its sanctions, can remain 
in any mind which knows what it is to be deterred 
by fear, or stimulated by hope \ or which feels the 
distinction that subsists between the good and the 
evil, the blessing and the curse. 

Is it defective in the encouragements which it 
gives to virtuous exertions ? What encourage- 
ments greater than these — an assurance that " the 
eye of God is ever upon the righteous, and his ear 
open to their cry," — an assurance that the afflic- 
tions to which their virtue may subject them, shall 
be made conducive to their improvement, — an as- 
surance that, in living holy, they are living to the 
praise of that Saviour who redeemed them by his 
own blood, — an assurance that every deed of cha- 
rity shall be accounted and rewarded by Jesus, as 
" done unto Himself," — an assurance that, whereas 
they are weak and insufficient of themselves, the 



218 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 9. 

Spirit of all might shall be sent to their assistance, 
— an assurance that they are walking in that path 
which has been trodden by thousands before them, 
who are now rejoicing around the throne of God, 
— an assurance that the time is fast approaching, 
when all their labours of suffering and of active vir- 
tue shall be crowned with honour and glory, in the 
everlasting kingdom of their Father ? Such being 
the assurances explicitly given in Scripture, the 
gospel cannot possibly be considered as deficient in 
the encouragements, with which it supports and ani- 
mates the Christian in that holy path, by which it 
is appointed that he shall journey to the heavenly 
world. 

Is it defective, I ask, in the last place, in the 
external means which it prescribes, for promoting 
the spiritual improvement of the Christian ? Here 
also, it is wholly unexceptionable. It puts into 
his hands a volume, which is " given by inspira- 
tion, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction and instruction in righteousness, that as 
a man of God, he may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished unto all good works." It appoints qualified 
persons to explain to him the meaning of these 
scriptures ; to instruct him in every part of his 
duty ; to remind him of what he owes to God, to 
his neighbour, and to himself ; to warn him when 
he goes astray ; to encourage him in the pursuit of 
holiness ; and to use every means by which he may 
be made to abound yet more and more, in all the 
things that are excellent. It consecrates one day 



SER. 9. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 219 



in seven to rest from ordinary labour, to give him 
a special opportunity of examining his heart, of re- 
viewing his past conduct, and of providing an addi- 
tional store of knowledge and wisdom for his guid- 
ance in future. It institutes certain ordinances, 
by which his moral principles are strengthened ; 
and by which, to the obligations that already bind 
him, there is superadded that which arises from a 
voluntary and solemn dedication of himself to the 
love and practice of goodness. It prescribes to him 
the exercise of habitual prayer, by which his mind 
is accustomed to the contemplation of divine excel- 
lence, and by which he derives from heaven, the 
grace and strength that are requisite for enabling 
him to walk in the ways of God's commandments. 
And, what is of the utmost consequence, it does 
not merely recommend the use of these means as a 
source of improvement and advantage, but makes it 
a subject of authoritative appointment, and com- 
mands it as a duty, which we are under as strict ob- 
ligations to perform, as any of the other duties re- 
quired of us by the laws of God. 

In all the views now taken of the moral influ- 
ence of the gospel, it evidently appears, that no de- 
fect whatever can be ascribed to it in that particu- 
lar. On the contrary, it seems perfectly calculated, 
by the qualities we have found it to possess, to pu- 
rify, in an extraordinary measure, the heart and 
the character of its adherents. It seems calculat- 
ed to produce this effect, not only above all the re- 
ligious and moral systems which have yet appeared 



220 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 9, 



in the world, but above any system which the un- 
aided powers of man can be reasonably supposed 
capable of forming. The survey of it which has 
been taken, necessarily short and rapid, is yet suffi- 
cient, we presume, to establish the conclusion at 
which we aim. To whatever cause the wickedness 
of professing- Christians may be owing, it cannot be 
attributed to any want of fitness in the Christian 
system to produce a contrary character, but is in 
direct opposition to the whole spirit, and design, 
and tendency of that system. And, therefore, in- 
stead of considering the fact on which so much 
stress is often laid by the enemies of our faith, as 
any proof against its divine origin; we should look 
to the moral character of that faith itself, as being 
not only worthy of the God from whom it professes 
to come, but capable of being traced to no inferior 
source, and consequently, as furnishing a powerful 
and irresistible evidence, for the divinity of our holy 
religion. 

We have still to consider the effects which Chris- 
tianity has actually produced, on the moral charac- 
ter of its adherents. But that point we must re- 
serve as the subject of another discourse ; and we 
shall now conclude with a few remarks, by way of 
improvement. 

When we reflect on the inherent excellence and 
purifying tendency of the gospel, and contrast it, in 
these respects, with the conduct actually exhibited 
by many who profess attachment to it, there is in- 
deed much reason for wonder and regret — for won- 



SER. 9- NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. Ml 

der that the effect is so very unlike the cause which 
we suppose to operate, and for regret that there 
should be so much nnworthiness amidst such mani- 
fold and mighty advantages. It surely becomes those 
who call themselves Christians, and yet lead unholy 
lives, to think seriously of the manner in which this 
inconsistency affects their character and their pros- 
pects. It renders them chargeable with being " ene- 
mies to God by wicked works," while they enjoy the 
light which should guide them in the path of right- 
eousness, and profess to walk in that path, while 
yet they are travelling in the way of transgressors : 
And being thus enemies to God, what can all their 
privileges, however valuable, and all their preten- 
sions, however sacred, do for them, when they are 
called to give in their account ? — what but aggra- 
vate the condemnation to which they must be 
doomed in the eternal judgment ? Let me, there- 
fore, entreat you to search and try yourselves, that 
you may discover your sinfulness and your danger, 
in their full extent, that you may be aware how 
far you are from the kingdom of heaven, though 
you are living amidst the outward benefits of the 
gospel dispensation, and that you may be persuad- 
ed to embrace that gospel in faith and love, having 
your hearts renewed and sanctified by its quicken- 
ing power, and all your principles, and affections, 
and conduct, subjected to its holy government. 

And let not this discussion be lost upon real Christ- 
ians, It becomes you, my believing friends, to " stir 
up the grace that is in you," that you may live more 



222 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS, &C. SER. 9» 

"unblameably and irreproveably" in the sight of your 
brethren and of the world ; to cherish the faith that 
you have placed in Jesus, that it may exert a still 
more purifying influence on your " heart, out of 
which are the issues of life to be more watchful 
against temptation, and more determined in resist- 
ing it ; to keep yourselves more from the snares and 
allurements of "the world, that lieth in wickedness;" 
and to pray, more frequently and more fervently, 
for that Divine Spirit, through whom alone you can 
be preserved from the defilements of sin, and be 
enabled to " walk worthy of the vocation wherewith 
you are called." Live thus, and you will not only 
work out your own salvation, but you will be in- 
strumental in promoting the salvation of others, in 
preventing " the name and the doctrine of God from 
being blasphemed," and in promoting the prosperity 
and influence of " the glorious gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 



223 



SERMON X. 



THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS NO ARGUMENT 
AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 

1 TIMOTHY vi. 1. 

" Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters 
worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not 
blasphemed." 

In entering on the consideration of these words, we 
proposed to consider the objection to Christianity 
which is drawn from the sinful conduct of those who 
have embraced it. We, first, directed your attention 
to the alleged fact on which the objection is made to 
rest, and endeavoured to show you that it is much 
exaggerated. We next proceeded to show you, that 
the fact in question cannot be reasonably adduced to 
invalidate the truth of Christianity, or to constitute 
any just cause of offence against that system of re- 
ligion. Here we remarked, that the objection must 
suppose that the wickedness of professing Christians 
arises either from Christianity being directly immoral 



224 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 



in its influence, or from its being deficient in power 
to make its votaries holy. The first part of this al- 
ternative we discarded, as what no person would 
presume to maintain. And, in discussing the se- 
cond part of it, we took occasion to prove that 
Christianity is not deficient in the plainness and 
energy of its precepts — nor in the extent of its mo- 
rality — nor in the principles on which its morality 
is founded — nor in the sanctions by which its duties 
are enforced— nor in the encouragements which it 
gives to holy exertion — nor in the external means 
which it prescribes for promoting the spiritual im- 
provement of the Christian. But then the argu- 
ment is not complete, till we have considered the 
effects which Christianity has produced on the mo- 
ral character of its adherents. And it is to this 
point we are to speak in the sequel of the present 
discourse. 

1. Let it be considered what a multitude of ex- 
cellent characters have been formed by the influence 
of the gospel. From its first establishment down 
to the present day, every successive age has had a 
number of individuals and of families by whom its 
sanctifying power has been deeply felt and practi- 
cally exhibited. 

On looking into the history of its progress and 
effects, we observe that it no sooner obtained a foot- 
ing, than it began to change the moral aspect of so- 
ciety, wherever, at least, the profession of it pre- 
vailed. "By thousands it was acknowledged as a 
divine religion ; and by a very great proportion of 



SEIt. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 225 

these its spirit was imbibed, and its precepts were 
obeyed. They were converted by it from the abo- 
minations of heathenism, and from the corruptions 
of Judaism ; they did not merely abandon a specu- 
lative error, and adopt a speculative truth ; it was 
not a mere improvement in point of doctrine : It 
was a total renovation in their heart and life. 
They became humane and pure, meek and temper- 
ate ; anxious to " depart from all iniquity/' and zeal- 
ous in the cultivation of universal holiness ; emi- 
nent for their personal virtues, — for piety to God, 
and benevolence to men. This is no imaginary 
representation— no extravagant picture of fancy — 
no exaggerated statement to support an otherwise 
untenable hypothesis. It is a well authenticated 
fact, which stands upon record, and of which every 
one must be satisfied who is acquainted with 
the early history of the church: a fact, which, in 
those times, attracted the notice and excited the 
admiration of the bitterest enemies of Christianity ; 
and which operated powerfully in recommending 
that system to the respect, the faith, and the obedi- 
ence both of Jew and Gentile. But this fact was 
not limited to the primitive times of Christianity. 
It has existed, more or less, in every age ; we can- 
not fix our eyes on a single page in the history of 
our religion, in which its triumphs over the bad 
passions and evil habits of mankind have not been 
conspicuous. Even in that dark period, when the 
knowledge of its genuine doctrines seemed to be 
lost ; when it had assumed a form the most un- 
ci 



226 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SElt. 10. 

favourable to morality — when it appeared to be 
overwhelmed with the most debasing corruption ; 
even then, amidst all these disadvantages, it had its 
votaries, whom it elevated far above the pollutions 
of the world, and adorned at once with the most 
splendid and the most amiable virtues. And since 
the era of the Reformation, which rescued it from 
the fooleries of superstition, and from the multi- 
form and numerous errors which had been indus- 
triously intermingled with its sacred truths, it has 
given many striking proofs of its tendency to purify 
the affections, to ameliorate the conduct, and to make 
men what they ought to be, as subjects of God's 
righteous government. If we look around us in 
the present day, we discover on every hand, its 
powerful operation on the active principles of those 
who have embraced it. We observe it giving dig- 
nity to personal deportment ; filling the domestic 
circle with love and harmony ; beautifying social 
life with the graces of meekness, benevolence, and 
mercy ; and throwing a lustre on national charac- 
ter, far above that which distinguished the brightest 
periods of Greece and Rome. We do not say, in- 
deed, that it has ever made any man perfect ; or 
that those who have embraced it are, in consequence 
of its influence, altogether free from vice. But we 
say, that it has superinduced on 'their character so 
much moral excellence, as to render them objects 
which we must contemplate with feelings of com- 
placency, with sentiments of respect. How many 
individuals are there, who abound in godliness and 



SER. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 2^7 

good works, and whose superior virtue we can 
trace to no other cause, than the sanctifying power 
of Christian truth ! They themselves acknowledge 
that it is this which constrains them to abstain from 
vice, and to do the holy will of God. And while 
it must be confessed, that they frequently fall short 
in the performance of duty, it is evident, at the 
same time, that they deeply regret their imperfec- 
tions, that they habitually endeavour to " perfect 
holiness in the fear of the Lord," and that they suc- 
ceed so far, at least, as to establish their right to a 
kind and a degree of approbation, which we can 
never bestow upon those whose life has been formed 
on a different model. In short, that, among those 
who have professed the gospel, there have been 
many trained to a high measure of moral worth 
under its influence, and its influence alone, is a 
fact which every age has witnessed, which must be 
admitted by every person who is at all acquainted 
with the progress of Christianity, or disposed to 
view it with a candid eye ; and which must have 
existed to an extent far greater than we have had 
access to know, or to observe, seeing that the in- 
fluence of religion has been chiefly experienced by 
those who have moved in the humble and more 
tranquil walks of life, and has purified thousands 
and millions whose virtues have never been heard 
of, and never witnessed, beyond the narrow sphere, 
or obscure occupation, in which providence had cast 
their lot. 

2. But the holy tendency of the gospel is obvious, 



228 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 



not only from its powerful effect on those who 
have truly believed its divine origin, and given a 
candid reception to its doctrines ; the same thing 
may be seen in the improved moral condition of 
those also, who have either given a mere specula- 
tive assent to it, or who are acquainted only with 
its tenets and precepts, or who live merely in coun- 
tries where it is professed. In these cases, it has 
confessedly raised the tone of public morals, put 
a stop to practices which disgraced human nature, 
given rise to the most humane and useful in- 
stitutions, introduced a more perfect standard of 
moral judgment, and infused into the mind of so- 
ciety at large a spirit of propriety, of generosity, of 
rectitude, and of decency, which has elevated man 
above his ordinary level, and which no other sys- 
tem has ever been able to inspire. The history of 
the gospel furnishes us with a detail of interesting 
and incontrovertible facts, which demonstrate, that 
Christianity has neither been useless nor detrimen- 
tal as a moral system ; that it has maintained an 
influence peculiar to itself, over the sentiments and 
manners of mankind ; and that this influence has 
been at once powerful, important, and extensive. 
But if it has been so efficient with regard to thou- 
sands and myriads who have not experienced indi- 
vidually its converting and saving power, of how 
much real native energy, in this respect, must it be 
possessed, and how admirably calculated must it be 
to purify those, who receive it as a divine religion ? 
Although we had never seen one instance of its 



SER. iO. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY, 229 

complete personal efficacy, we could not possibly, 
without giving up all our ideas of tracing effects to 
their causes, and of reasoning by analogy, have de- 
nied, or even questioned, its possession of a direct 
and vigorous tendency to discourage the practice 
of sin, and to promote the reign of holiness in the 
world. The argument is equally simple and irre- 
sistible. If the gospel have actually reformed 
and greatly improved the character of those, who 
have merely lived in countries where it has been 
known and professed, then surely it cannot be de- 
ficient in power, to carry, to high and distinguished 
attainments in virtue, such as have truly imbibed its 
spirit, and yielded themselves to its guidance. And 
though this, of itself, is not a sufficient ground for 
believing Christianity to be of heavenly origin, it is 
at least quite adequate to the purpose of meeting 
and nullifying the objection that we are discussing. 

3. It is not enough, however, to state that there 
are many who show in their conduct, the holy ten- 
dency and sanctifying power of Christianity — that 
there are, and have been, multitudes of Christians 
who have adorned their religion by the exercise of 
every virtue — it is proper to state, in addition to 
this, the contrast which their present conduct ex- 
hibits to their former conduct, and also to the de- 
portment of others, who have rejected the gospel, 
or who have never heard of its existence. At this 
contrast we have already hinted ; but though it by 
no means requires a long illustration, it certainly 
deserves a more particular notice, as being essen- 



230 THITIMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 



tial to a complete view, and a just decision, of the 
subject, 

We are not to rest satisfied with considering" 
simply what the Christian is. We must compare 
what he is, with what he was before he embraced 
the gospel. This shows the degree of power 
which that religion has to make its votaries holy. 
He who is brought from the love and practice of 
the most abominable vices — from evil habits of the 
most inveterate kind, to take delight in the law of 
God, and in the performance of duty, has been un- 
questionably constrained by motives of no ordin- 
ary strength, and has paid a species of homage to 
the system, by which this revolution has been ef- 
fected in his character, which our adversaries will 
in vain attempt to account for on their usual prin- 
ciples. 

It is right also, to compare the moral character of 
the Christian, with that of others who have not 
known or adopted the same religious faith. While 
he is ' 6 denying ungodliness and worldly affections," 
they are not even sensible that there is much guilt 
or evil in these things. While he is " living sober- 
ly, righteously, and godly," they are indulging 
freely in the gratification of every criminal appetite 
and passion. While he is acting on a fixed and 
steady principle of regard to the authority of God, 
they are anxious only in the pursuit of worldly in- 
terest, or of sensual pleasure, and consider nothing 
as valuable which does not contribute to these un- 
worthy ends. While he is habitually regulating 



SER. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 231 



his conduct by a standard of unmingled excellence, 
and is making gradual approaches to the perfection 
at which he constantly aims, they are conforming 
to maxims which have their foundation in error ; 
they are addicted to many vices upon system, and 
under the very sanction of their religion, disgracing 
themselves by practices the most odious and detest- 
able. Let the adversaries of our faith consider this 
— let them recollect that the votaries of Christianity 
are distinguished by a species, and have attained a 
degree, of moral worth, which we shall in vain 
search for in the votaries of any other system what- 
ever — let them recollect that the gospel has raised 
the character of the lowest of the people who have 
embraced it, incomparably higher in the scale of 
morality than the most accomplished disciple of the 
most eminent schools of philosophy has ever been 
able to reach — let them recollect that true Chris- 
tians far exceed, in the purity and extent of their 
virtue, even those who, though they have not be- 
lieved in the gospel, have yet borrowed many of its 
precepts, have been trained up under the prevalent 
influence of its spirit, and are accounted the most 
amiable and respectable of the men of the world — 
let them recollect these things, and then deny, if 
they can, not merely the superior, but the direct, 
and decided, and undeviating tendency of the Chris- 
tian religion, to make those by whom it is adopted, 
remarkable for the love and the practice of genuine 
holiness. 

4. It was formerly stated, that the fact upon 



232 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 



which the objection we are considering is founded, 
is frequently exaggerated by the fault of one Chris- 
tian being transferred or imputed to the whole 
church. But I have now to observe, that the fact 
is also most unfairly and injuriously misapplied in 
another way. Our adversaries make no distinction 
between real, and merely nominal Christians. And 
yet that such a distinction actually exists, and that 
it ought to be attended to, must be admitted by 
every one who has any pretensions to justice and 
candour. It is notorious that there are some whose 
belief in the truth of Christianity is merely specula- 
tive ; who cannot deny that the religion of Jesus 
is supported by sufficient evidence, but who have 
no distinct and impressive views of its divine nature, 
and infinite importance ; who consider it as a sys- 
tem of abstract doctrine, and never recognise or 
think of it as the rule of conduct which they must 
observe, or perish for ever. That it should have 
much practical influence on persons, by whom it is 
regarded in this cold and distant manner, is not to 
be expected : their ideas of it are extremely imper- 
fect : they hate its spirit : they wish it to be differ- 
ent from what it is : they admit it to be true, 
because they cannot prove it to be false : and give 
it such a reception in their minds, as is given by a 
habitual drunkard to the maxim that drunkenness 
is a wicked and ruinous practice, while, with this 
conviction, which his understandings cannot refuse, 
he goes on to indulge as formerly in the vice of in- 
temperance. 



SER. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY: 233 

There are many, too, who have assumed the pro- 
fession of Christianity, without any conviction at all 
respecting its credibility, but because they have 
been born and educated in a Christian country, and 
are naturally desirous to comply with the fashion 
that prevails around them. They might be offend- 
ed were we to call them infidels ; but neither can 
they be denominated believers : they are in a great 
measure ignorant of the religion which they appear 
to have embraced ; they are careless whether it be 
of divine institution, or of human device ; all their 
concern is to move quietly down the stream of cus- 
tom, and not to disturb themselves with inquiries 
into the nature, and strict compliance with the re- 
quisitions, of a religion of which they know but 
little, and think it of no consequence to learn more. 
To look for habitual resistance in persons of this 
description to the temptations of sin, or for high at- 
tainments in holiness and piety, is not less absurd 
than to look with confidence for gold in every ob- 
ject, the surface of which has accidentally received 
a yellow tinge. 

There are not a few also, who profess to be 
Christians, while, in their hearts, they do not believe 
one word of the gospel. They have some sinister 
purposes to serve, and the better to accomplish 
these, they pretend to be followers of Christ, and 
observe such forms as shall demonstrate them to be 
so, in the vague and indiscriminating estimation 
of the world ; but all the while they are in reality 
unbelievers ; they reject Christ as a messenger 



234 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 

from God, and accordingly despise the authority of 
his gospel. And is it reasonable to be disappointed 
because such persons do not exhibit a character re- 
gulated by its precepts, or pervaded by its temper ? 
Is it any thing but folly in the extreme, to argue 
on the supposition that they shall obey a system of 
religion which they consider to be nothing else 
than " a cunningly devised fable or that they 
shall submit to its commandments any farther than 
is absolutely requisite to promote the mean and in- 
terested ends which they have in view ? With 
equal propriety may we feel and express surprise, 
that an enemy's spy, who assumes our dress, and 
makes occasional use of our language, the more effec- 
tually to deceive us, will not also conform himself to 
all our laws, strive to guard us from danger, labour 
to promote our prosperity, and act in every respect 
like a faithful friend and a patriotic subject. 

In all these cases, there is a gross absurdity in 
expecting such a virtuous deportment as will be 
creditable to the gospel : and there is the same 
gross absurdity in imputing to the gospel the de- 
fects and iniquities of those who are unacquainted 
with it, or who do not love it, or who cordially re- 
ject it. The gospel surely cannot be made to an- 
swer for the crimes of speculatists, and hypocrites, 
and infidels, without being subjected to a test, 
which would have equally condemned it, what- 
ever had been the nature or degree of its evi- 
dence. We say, let it be judged of by its own in- 
trinsic merits and uniform tendency ; or even let 



SER. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY, 235 

it be judged of by the conduct of those who have 
embraced it in faith, and love, and reality ; and 
we feel confident that the result will be decided- 
ly favourable to its claims on our profound and 
unlimited regard. For we maintain that, while it 
is inherently calculated to make men " holy in all 
manner of conversation," it has actually produced 
that effect in numberless instances ; and at the 
same time, introduced a most happy improvement 
of the moral sentiments and behaviour of those who 
have merely come within the range of its indirect 
and unacknowledged influence. 

5. That the gospel has not been more generally 
efficacious in reforming mankind, and in perfecting 
the character of its votaries, is to be accounted for 
in various ways. Without entering into any de- 
tail, however, I may merely mention one general 
principle which appears to solve the whole difficul- 
ty. The gospel is not a system of compulsion. It 
is a dispensation given to beings who have a parti- 
cular moral constitution ; and to the nature and 
circumstances of that constitution it is adapted by 
its infinitely wise author. We are endowed with 
powers of investigation, of judgment, and of choice 
— with all the powers, in short, which are necessary 
to constitute us voluntary agents ; and for the exer- 
cise of these powers, and in consequence of possess- 
ing them, we are finally responsible to God. Now 
on this essential character of our condition, as sub- 
jects of God's moral government, the gospel is of- 
fered to us. It is not forced upon us by any phy- 



^36 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 

sical necessity : Its Author does not propose to treat 
us as machines, and compel us to accept of it, and 
yield to it, in defiance of the very faculties and ca- 
pacities with which He himself has invested us. 
He has supported it by certain evidences which we 
are called on to examine, that we may be rationally 
satisfied of its truth. He has put into it certain 
doctrines and precepts, which we are required to 
investigate in order to know what they are, and in 
what sense they form a part of revelation. He 
has presented to us certain motives, not to over- 
power us with a sort of mechanical and irresistible 
force — but to exercise our affections, to work upon 
our hopes and our fears, our hatred and our love, 
in a manner accommodated to the original nature 
which he has conferred upon us as rational and 
accountable beings. And, in all these views, it is 
certainly not to be objected to the gospel, that 
many to whom it is offered should be blind 
to its excellence and its credibility ; that they 
should, from rash or perverted judgments, fall 
frequently into practical error ; that their passions 
and their prejudices should sometimes overcome 
their convictions of truth, and their sense of duty ; 
that the objects of sense should, in certain circum- 
stances of temptation and difficulty, be more re- 
garded by them than the objects of faith ; that they 
should occasionally forget their obligations, neglect 
the proper means of resisting the allurements of 
sin, fall a prey to snares against which they have 
made no adequate provision, and ever choose the 



SER. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 237 

evil, while they despise the good that is set before 
them. To find fault, therefore, with the little com- 
parative efficacy of Christianity in reclaiming and 
sanctifying men, is in fact to complain that man is 
constituted, as he is, a voluntary and accountable 
agent ; or that God has not made Christianity a 
system of absolute compulsion, and thus destroyed 
the essential nature by which we are distinguished 
from the other creatures of this world. Such a 
complaint is unquestionably foolish : but we have 
no reason to pursue the argument farther than this 
step to which we have brought it, that the failure 
of the gospel to make all men holy, is to be charged 
not against the gospel itself, but against the corrup- 
tion and perversity of men ; who, though " light has 
come into the world, choose the darkness rather 
than the light, because their deeds are evil and 
who, in consequence of this undue preference, must, 
of course, continue to have " fellowship with the 
unprofitable and sinful works of darkness." 

We should now point out the way in which 
Christians ought to act, so as that the word and 
the doctrine of God be not blasphemed. This may 
be considered as the subject which the apostle has 
more immediately in his eye ; and it may be com- 
prehended under the following heads. 

1. There is the general duty of a practical and 
unreserved submission to God's will as revealed in 
the gospel. 

2. There is a faithful and conscientious discharge 
of the duties which belong to the several relations 



238 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF CHRISTIANS SER. 10. 

in which we stand, and the various circumstances 
in which we are placed. 

3. There is a willing- sacrifice of certain rights, 
and privileges, and comforts, on retaining which we 
might properly insist, in certain circumstances, but 
which it is incumbent upon us to forego when the 
cause of Christianity requires it. 

4. There is a habitual reference to those great 
and influential principles which we have embraced 
as Christians, and which are both intended, and cal- 
culated, to produce sanctifying effects, in more than 
an ordinary measure. 

5. And there is a constant and conscious depen- 
dance upon the divine Spirit, which itself operates, 
both as a guard and as an incitement in the path of 
life ; and which prompts to that application by pray- 
er for God's help, which we are so apt to forget, 
but which is necessary in order to procure for us 
what we thus need. 

The illustration of these particulars, however, we 
must reserve for a future discourse. 

In the mean time let us be thankful to God, that 
he has laid a foundation for our faith so strong, as 
to set at defiance the cavils and objections of its ad- 
versaries, and to satisfy us that the more we exam- 
ine it, the more reason shall we see for clinging to 
it and resting upon it, If any thing could be sup- 
posed capable of shaking or overturning it and all 
that it sustains, it would be the unholy conduct of 
those who appeal to it, as the ground of their hope 
and confidence. And yet we see that it remains 



SEIt. 10. NO ARGUMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. Q39 



firm and sure, in spite of all their treachery and in- 
consistency. The gospel leads us to expect such 
unworthiness on their part. It does not profess 
to make them perfect in virtue as long as they are 
in this world. It only offers and promises to reno- 
vate, and sanctify, and improve, all who embrace 
it, in such a way, and in such a degree, as may be 
expected from its agency on beings who still carry 
about with them the remains of corruption, and 
dwell in a world of temptation and wickedness. 
But it produces upon them a real, extensive, moral 
change, which no other system has ever accom- 
plished, or pretended to accomplish : it raises them 
to high attainment in the excellence which God 
approves ; and it thus gives an earnest of that sin- 
less purity to which, through its instrumentality, 
they shall be exalted, in the heavenly state. 

Let us be grateful also, in so far as we have per- 
sonally experienced the transforming power of the 
gospel. This is a distinguished privilege, which 
we can never sufficiently acknowledge. It is a re- 
volution of heart and character essential to our ul- 
timate salvation — to our comfort here, and to our 
happiness hereafter. It has been accomplished by 
that grace of God to which we could lay no claim, 
and which has been as gratuitous, as it has been effi- 
cacious. It is an indication that we are interested 
in all the benefits of Christ's redemption. It is it- 
self a part of the deliverance which he has wrought 
out for us by his sufferings and death. It is an 
evidence, an experimental and convincing proof, to 



240 



THE IMPERFECTIONS, &C SER. 10* 



ourselves, that Christianity is from God, and that 
" the author and finisher of our faith" is " might j 
to save." And it affords, through the medium of 
our sanctification, a proof to others of the truth, 
and the virtue, and the efficiency, of that glorious 
system in which we exhort them to believe. Let 
us therefore offer our unfeigned and cordial thanks- 
givings to Him by whose grace it is that " we are 
what we are and let us pray that he may enable 
us more and more to " prove what is his good, and 
holy, and acceptable will." 

And, finally, let us strive with all our might, that 
" the word and the doctrine of God be not blas- 
phemed." Though the objection we have been 
considering has no real strength in it ; though we 
know this from what we ourselves feel in our own 
experience, — yet, knowing that it is often employed 
by the enemies of religion, and that, too, with con- 
siderable success, let us be careful to avoid giving 
any colour to it, or any ground for it, by the wick- 
edness or the imprudence of our conduct. If we 
would show our regard for the honour and success 
of the gospel among men, we must not only be 
holy in the common and general sense of that word ; 
we must, moreover, be tender and circumspect in 
the whole tenor of our life ; we must " walk in 
wisdom towards them that are without ;" we must 
" abstain from the very appearance of evil ;" we 
must " let our light so shine before men, that they 
seeing our good works, may glorify our Father 
which is in heaven." 



241 



SERMON XL 



THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS IN REFERENCE TO THE 
OBJECTION FOUNDED UPON THEIR IMPERFECTIONS. 

1 TIMOTHY vi. 1. 

w Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters 
worthy of all honour y that the name of God and his doctrine be not 
blasphemed" 

The unworthy conduct of professing Christians 
has been often brought forward as an objection to 
the truth of Christianity. We have shown you, 
that the alleged fact on which the objection is 
grounded, has been greatly exaggerated. And we 
have also shown you, that the fact being, in its real 
extent, admitted, does not warrant the conclusion 
drawn from it ; because the gospel is not deficient, 
in its nature and tendency, to make its votaries holy \ 
and because it has actually produced the most be- 
neficial effects, on the moral dispositions and charac- 
ter of multitudes, who have subjected themselves to 
its governing power ; and has even exercised an 
ameliorating influence on those who came merely 

R 



242 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 

within the sphere of its general and indirect opera- 
tion. 

But all this should not make us insensible, or in- 
different, to that particular objection which we 
have thus considered and repelled. It should be 
our concern to remove every pretext for the ob- 
jection — to do every thing which can uphold the 
credit of our religion, and to do nothing of which 
advantage may be taken to gainsay or to dispa- 
rage it. It is not enough that we demonstrate, 
however clearly and convincingly, the unfairness 
of the attack which is made upon it by its adver- 
saries : we should, moreover, strive to wrest from 
them the weapons which they employ for its injury 
or its destruction, and to give not the least colour 
of justice to the hostility with which they assail it. 
We are called upon, by every motive of gratitude 
to the Saviour, of regard to the divine honour, and 
of compassion to the souls of men, who must be 
saved by Christianity, or not be saved at all, to ab- 
stain from all those actions and indulgences by 
which " the name or the doctrine of God may be 
blasphemed/' This is the exhortation of the apos- 
tle, which we shall now endeavour to illustrate, by 
pointing out the way in which it is to be complied 
with, so as most effectually to answer the end for 
which it is given. 

1. And, in the first place, we exhort you never 
to forget that the gospel is a practical system. It 
tells you of many things interesting in themselves, 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



£43 



and with which it is important for you to be well 
acquainted. It presents to you various subjects of 
pleasing and useful meditation. It reveals doc- 
trines on which to exercise your faith — examples 
which you are called to contemplate and admire — 
events which may excite your wonder, or stimulate 
your curiosity, or increase your knowledge of the 
ways of providence — promises on which you may 
build many a delightful hope — and assurances, from 
which you may derive the sweetest consolation. 
And a religion so furnished with what is excellent 
and momentous and delightful, is something which 
you may deem it honourable, and even find it ad- 
vantageous, to profess before the world, as that of 
whose truth you are convinced, and by whose 
power you expect to be redeemed. But, though in 
all these respects it can hardly fail to have some in- 
fluence on your temper and conduct, still its influ- 
ence will be enlarged and secured if you habitu- 
ally bear in mind, that the gospel is intend- 
ed, as well as fitted, to sanctify you ; that one of 
its leading purposes is to raise you from the de- 
basement of sin ; and that its grand end cannot be 
accomplished upon you, unless it produce in you a 
conformity to the moral law, and a resemblance to 
the moral image of God. If you do not remember 
these things, or if your impression of them be 
feeble, indistinct, or desultory, then all that you 
have learned of Christianity, all that you see in it, 
and all that you anticipate from it, will have lit- 
tle efficacy in promoting your superiority to what 



244 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 

is evil, and your cultivation of what is good. But 
by having that impression strong upon your mind, 
and by having it ever present with you, the whole 
record of the gospel will prove, at all times, in all 
places, and in all circumstances, a directory to 
guide you, a law to restrain you, and a motive to 
animate you, in performing your work of righte- 
ousness and self-denial. To whatever part of it 
your attention is directed, you will derive from it 
some lesson of virtue — some lesson that will be of 
service in deepening your humility, in warming 
your devotion, in invigorating your resistance to 
temptation, in elevating you above the love and 
the pollutions of the world, in purifying you from 
the corruptions of sense, in giving more integrity 
to your dealings, more cheerfulness to your pa- 
tience, more strictness to your sobriety, more ar- 
dour, more enlargement, more activity to your be- 
nevolence. Such lessons will accompany all your 
thoughts of Christianity, for you will be perpetually 
seeking for them, and you can never fail to disco- 
ver them ; and they will come home to you with 
constraining force, because you carry along with 
you the principle, that it is the divine purpose of 
Christianity to teach and to enforce them. When 
you turn your mind to any one of its doctrinal 
truths, you will consider that it is not only to be 
believed, but that it is to make you free, in some 
respect or other, from the dominion of iniquity. 
When you meet with any precept, you will recol- 
lect that it is not merely a proof of the perfection 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. £45 

of that morality which revelation inculcates, but a 
rule for your deportment in that branch of holiness 
to which it refers. When you cast your eye upon 
the delineation of a character, you will view it as 
not only held out to attract or to interest you, but 
as set before you to warn you against certain of- 
fences, or to recommend the practice of certain vir- 
tues. When any promise occurs to you as com- 
fortable in the midst of distress, it will not only 
shed the blessing of tranquillity over your afflicted 
spirit, but it will bend your will into more perfect 
conformity to the will of God, and stir you up to 
the discharge of every duty peculiar to a season of 
trial and suffering. When the prospect of heaven 
offers itself to your vie w, it will not only elevate 
and enliven you with hope, but it will excite you 
to the cultivation of that purity of affection and 
that holiness of life, which constitute your appoint- 
ed meetness for the enjoyments of the celestial 
world. In short, there is nothing in the whole 
range of the gospel, however minute it may be, and 
however inconsiderable and unworthy of notice it 
may be deemed by the too speculative believer, 
which will not speak to you a language bearing, in 
one way or other, on your improvement in " what- 
soever things are pure, or true, or lovely, or of 
good report." And thus, by continually realizing 
its practical character, and authority, and extent, it 
will exercise a ceaseless and universal sway over 
your temper and conversation and conduct : it will 
produce a degree of watchfulness against sin, and 



246 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 



a minuteness, as well as an extent of obedience, 
which could not otherwise have existed ; and it 
will cause you to exhibit such a holy consistency of 
behaviour, as shall command the respect or win the 
forbearance of gainsayers, for that religion which 
makes you so fruitful in every good word and 
work. In this way, then, see that you prevent 
" the name and the doctrine of God from being 
blasphemed." 

2. In the second place, with the same view we 
exhort you to a faithful and conscientious discharge 
of the duties which belong to the several relations 
in which you stand, and the various circumstances 
in which you are placed. There are certain duties 
which are common to all men, whatever be their 
particular situations : but there are other duties, 
peculiar to the condition in which individuals, or 
classes of individuals, may happen to stand, accord- 
ing to the providential arrangement of their lot. 
Now while you fulfil the former with all diligence, 
let me entreat you to be specially careful to fulfil the 
latter also, with scrupulous and irreproachable fidel- 
ity. There are many who pay a decent, and perhaps 
exemplary regard, to the duties which are common 
to all, but who are found much less strict and atten- 
tive in the performance of their peculiar duties. And 
herein they not merely manifest a very gross and 
injurious inconsistency, but by the total neglect, or 
partial observance, of those moral obligations, which 
are usually of most consequence to society, and 
most confidently expected as the result of Christian 
faith, they open the mouths of its enemies and give 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



247 



them occasion to speak evil of it. Whereas, would 
believers, while they study a general conformity to its 
precepts, be particularly strict and conscientious, in 
doing whatever is incumbent on them in the differ- 
ent stations which they occupy, their goodness 
would force itself upon the notice of the most care- 
less, and secure the homage of the most inveterate 
of the adversaries of the gospel. It is for this rea- 
son among others, that our Saviour and his apostles 
are never contented with merely inculcating holi- 
ness on men generally, or in terms of general im- 
port. They are much more circumstantial and de- 
tailed in the injunctions which they issue in the 
name of the Lord. They call upon Christians, to 
remember the relations which they bear to one an- 
other, and to the world around them ; to consider 
the dispositions and the behaviour these specially 
demand from them, and to feel and act accordingly. 
In our text, for example, the Apostle Paul specifies 
what is incumbent on Christian servants, being in 
the families of unbelieving masters. Persons in 
that sphere, humble as it is, are " set for the defence 
of the gospel and they defend it, when they avoid 
all undutiful conduct in their subordinate capacity, 
and show all good fidelity to those who are over 
them, and take care that nothing in their conduct 
as servants, give occasion to their masters to form 
an unfavourable opinion of the principles they pro- 
fess, and the name by which they are called. And 
the principle which is implied in this exhortation to 
servants is equally applicable to masters. They 



248 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 



also have their peculiar duties ; and, in their capa- 
city as masters, an obligation is laid on them to re- 
commend the religion they profess. A master who 
has a profession of religion may rest assured, that 
every act of injustice, oppression, or wickedness on 
his part, is calculated to have a most unhappy influ- 
ence on the mind of his servants in reference to the 
gospel — to give them false conceptions of its nature 
and tendency, and thereby to place a stumbling- 
block in the way of their reception of its message, 
which all his exactness in the discharge of the other 
duties of his profession will be unable to remove. 
In the same manner, and with the same view, we 
may address the exhortation to individuals in all 
the various relations of life — to husbands and wives, 
to parents and children, to rulers and subjects, to 
neighbours and friends, to spiritual shepherds, and 
the flocks over whom God has made them over- 
seers. To persons in each of these relative condi- 
tions, there belongs a certain class of duties ; and 
to the performance of these duties, according to our 
respective places and relations, we must devote 
ourselves with singular activity and care, if we 
would consult the honour of Christianity, and ward 
off" from it the reproaches of worldly and unbeliev- 
ing men. 

Nor is this all. The circumstances, as well as the 
relations of life, come under the government of the 
rule we are considering. If you are poor, and in 
your poverty are discontented, idle, and envious ; 
if you are rich, and amidst your riches, are proud, 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 249 

and worldly, extravagant and niggardly ; if you are 
sick, and, under the pressure of sickness, are impa- 
tient and fretful ; if you are in health, and unmind- 
ful withal of your liability to disease and to death ; 
if you are in prosperity, and forgetful of the vanity 
of all that is in the world, and speak and act as if 
your mountain were never to be brought low, and 
as if your cup were to be always running over ; if 
you are in adversity, and do not consider whose 
hand it is that has disappointed and reduced you, 
and take unlawful means to recover your lost for- 
tunes, and are as much disheartened as if the world 
were your all ; if you are possessed of power, and 
make use of it to promote your own aggrandize* 
ment, and are haughty and supercilious to your 
inferiors, and forget to employ your distinction for 
the protection of the injured and the innocent ; if 
you have no influence and no authority over others, 
and are dissatisfied that you are destitute of such 
advantages, and cherish a spirit of insubordination, 
and look with a scowling eye on those who wield 
the sceptre of dominion, or command homage by 
their talents or their station ; if you exhibit these 
sentiments and this conduct, then you may be in 
other points of character, " blameless and harmless 
and without rebuke," but the foes of Christianity 
will fasten on the failings and offences with which 
you are thus chargeable, where you should have 
been particularly ambitious to excel* and will mock 
at the pretensions of a religion, which leaves its 
votaries so subject to corrupt and unholy passions, 

3 



250 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 



and so like those by whom its truth is unacknow- 
ledged, and its influence unfelt. But on the other 
hand, if your conduct corresponds with your lot, 
whatever it may be ; if you would manifest those 
graces which are proper and suitable to it ; if, in the 
variety of conditions through which it may be ne- 
cessary for you to pass, you are adorned with those 
virtues which they severally and successively re- 
quire ; if in want you are contented and industri- 
ous ; if in abundance you are humble and heaven- 
ly-minded, while your heart deviseth and your 
hand executeth liberal things ; if in affliction you 
are patient and resigned under the mighty hand of 
God ; if in bodily health and outward fortune, all 
is well and flourishing with you, and you are active 
in improving your opportunities of usefulness, and 
are sympathizing with those of your brethren who 
are doomed to travel in a more thorny path ; and if 
you are £t using the world and not abusing it," re- 
collecting the evanescent nature of it fashions and 
its joys ; if invested with power and influence over 
others, you employ these advantages in guarding 
them from oppression and injury, and in promoting 
their substantial welfare ; if obscure and lonely, you 
have more to do with obedience than with com- 
mands, and yet grieve not that it is so, but cheer- 
fully acquiesce in the arrangement which has made 
you insignificant, and are ready at all times to " give 
honour to whom honour is due," and to set your 
heart on that superiority which the humblest may 
attain, and which consists in a good conscience and 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



251 



a holy life ; if you are seen acting in this manner, 
the gospel, by whose operation it is that you are 
constrained and enabled to show forth such truly 
and minutely appropriate characters of excellence, 
will commend itself to the respect and esteem of 
those who would otherwise have accused it of 
moral inefficiency, and who would have made your 
misconduct the handle for traducing and rejecting 
it. In this way, then, be entreated to labour, that 
" the name of God and his doctrine be not blas- 
phemed." 

3. In the third place, we exhort you to make a 
willing sacrifice even of certain privileges and com- 
forts, when the exigences of the case require it, 
though, in ordinary circumstances, you would be 
warranted in refusing to make it, if it were de- 
manded. " Let as many servants as are under the 
yoke," says the apostle, " count their own masters 
worthy of all honour, that the name of God and 
his doctrine be not blasphemed." It was a com- 
mon allegation at the commencement of Christiani- 
ty, that it loosened the bonds of civil life, and re- 
lieved those who embraced it from obligations, 
which are essential to the existence and welfare of 
society. And, perhaps, the conduct of some indivi- 
duals, proceeding from ignorance, or from selfishness, 
might give some colour and plausibility to this charge. 
Now the apostle sets himself here, as in other parts 
of his writings, to remove this cause of stumbling 
and offence, by urging Christians not only to be 
faithful in the duties of their calling, but even to 



252 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 

forego advantages which they might justly claim, in 
order that the credit of the gospel might not suffer 
at their hands. At the period referred to, servants 
were universally in a state of slavery, they were 
" under the yoke" as it is here expressed. This 
was a violation of the natural and essential rights 
of man ; and implies a dominion which no individu- 
al of our species is entitled to exercise over an- 
other. But those who suffered from such an out- 
rage, were not probably aware of the radical in- 
justice and monstrous evil to which they were 
thereby subjected. When the gospel, however, was 
revealed to them — enlightening them as to the true 
value and dignity of the human soul — breathing 
a spirit of equity and love — and inculcating max- 
ims which were incompatible with the bondage of 
a single rational being — they felt the desire of li- 
berty spring up in their bosoms, and they were 
tempted to gratify it, by abandoning the servitude 
to which they had hitherto submitted. And in do- 
ing so, they would have acted agreeably to the im- 
pulse of nature, to the dictates of reason, to the 
pervading tone and general principles of Christian- 
ity. But then if Christianity was true, as they be- 
lieved it to be, and if it was of infinite impor- 
tance, as they professed to regard it, their personal 
immunities and comforts should not be put in com- 
petition with its interests, and prosperity, and pre- 
valence in the world. And, therefore, as they hap- 
pened to be " under the yoke," and as any violent 
attempt to gain their freedom would be employed 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS, 253 

to the prejudice of the gospel, and might increase 
the opposition, already so formidable, to its progress 
and establishment, the apostle counselled them to 
continue as they were ; and though their masters 
were holding them in slavery, and moreover had 
not been privileged to know and to believe " the 
truth as it is in Jesus," but were still involved in 
ignorance and error, and in the sight of God far 
below the level of those over whom they tyran- 
nised, yet " to count them worthy of all honour," 
to obey them as heretofore, to execute all their 
lawful commands, and to do nothing that could 
give unnecessary offence. 

Now, my friends, you see from this what is in- 
cumbent on you all. It is of no consequence 
whether you be masters or servants, whether you 
stand in one relation or in another. The principle 
here illustrated comprehends the whole. While 
you recollect what is due to yourselves, you must 
recollect still more what is due to the gospel. 
Think well of its truth, of its value, of its influence 
on human happiness, of its necessity to man's sal- 
vation, of the enmity it has to encounter, of the 
obligations you are under to support it, of the en- 
couragements you have to do much and to endure 
much for its prosperity. Think of these things, 
and you will not marvel at the exhortation given 
by the apostle to those servants who were i 6 under 
the yoke and you will not resist the exhortation 
as addressed to you in that application of its mean- 
ing, which is called for by your several and pecu- 



I- . 



254 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 

liar circumstances. Which of you does not ac- 
knowledge himself bound by every strong and en- 
dearing tie, to labour for the furtherance of the gos- 
pel ? Which of you can hesitate, for this purpose, 
to cultivate those moral virtues, which, in conse- 
quence of their being prescribed by the divine law, 
must be practised, independently of their effects on 
the belief and obedience of others ? And which of 
you can, consistently with his Christian privileges, 
his Christian profession, his Christian experience, 
refuse to lay his all, when the cause of the gospel re- 
quires it, at the foot of the cross, and there conse- 
crate it to the honour of that holy name by which 
he is called, and to the support of that blessed doc- 
trine which maketh " wise unto salvation ?" If the 
apostle went so far as to exhort those who were 
" under the yoke" to continue without murmuring, 
to drink the bitter cup of slavery, surely we do not 
go too far when we insist upon your exercising all 
those acts of self-denial, and offering all those sa- 
crifices, which can possibly be exacted from Chris- 
tians in these lands, and in these days, for the sake 
of their religion. And the effect of such generous 
conduct cannot fail to be most beneficial, in "put- 
ting to silence the ignorance of those foolish men," 
who, because they can speak of you as evil-doers, 
would speak also of Christianity as consistent with 
evil-doing. It is well when they see you discharg- 
ing faithfully and diligently those duties which are 
taught and enjoined in the moral law, or which are 

specified in the preceptive part of the gospel. But 

1 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



255 



it is better still, when they see you taking a higher 
and more liberal aim ; and far from standing on 
rights which human authority would vindicate for 
you, and which the common feelings and under- 
standing of mankind would justify you in seeking 
and asserting, ready to surrender them with cheer- 
fulness, when, but for this surrender, the credit of 
religion would be brought into suspicion, and its 
success arrested, or its influence impaired. When 
they see you thus disinterested, and thus munificent, 
in your contendings for its prosperity, they not on- 
ly believe you to be sincere in the attachment which 
you profess to feel for it, but they perceive it to be 
a powerful and efficacious instrument for subduing 
all the selfish passions of our nature, for raising 
men to degrees of virtue and of righteousness which 
cannot be reached under the direction and energy 
of ordinary motives, and for forming them to the 
love and the pursuit of those excellencies which are 
equally ornamental to the individuals by whom 
they are cultivated, and useful to the society whose 
character and whose interests they are calculated 
to affect. So that unless their hatred towards the 
gospel is unquenchable, and unless they are deter- 
mined to show their hostility to it in spite of the 
most powerful recommendations by which it can be 
pressed upon their regard, they will not only treat 
it with forbearance — they will not only refrain from 
blaspheming or speaking evil of it, and labouring in 
that way to counteract its influence and its progress 
in the world, but they may also be led to think of 



256 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 11. 



it with secret reverence, to inquire into the more 
direct and conclusive evidences of its divinity, 
and to deal with it, in such a manner, as to give 
fair promise of becoming, through God's blessing, 
believers in its doctrine, subjects of its power, and 
promoters of its universal propagation. 

I should now proceed to exhort you, in the 
fourth place, to live habitually under the influence 
of those great and peculiar principles which you 
have embraced as Christians, and which are both 
intended and fitted to produce sanctifying effects in 
more than an ordinary measure. But this particu- 
lar, and some others, I must reserve as the subject 
of another discourse. 

Let me now conclude with reminding you, that 
though you are to labour and to sacrifice much, in 
order that " the name of God and his doctrine be 
not blasphemed," this must not be regarded as the 
sole, nor even the chief, motive for your holy walk 
and conversation. Such an idea would produce 
simulation and hypocrisy — an effect which would 
not only render all your exertions useless as to 
yourselves, but, on being detected, would defeat 
the object you had in view, and increase the en- 
mity, and add to the triumphs of the adversaries of 
the gospel. Study to be Christians in heart and in 
reality. Live in the faith of Jesus, in dependance 
on his righteousness, and in obedience to his will, 
whether men see you or not. Labour to approve 
yourselves to God, and to prepare for immortality^ 
And think only of the good and of the evil which 



SER. 11. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



257 



your conduct is capable of producing on the for- 
tunes of Christianity, that you may have one mo- 
tive more, and that a most interesting and effica- 
cious motive, for determining you, to deny your- 
selves to every species, and every degree, and every 
appearance, of sinful indulgence, and for exciting 
you to strive to be righteous before God and before 
men, " walking in all the commandments, and in 
all the ordinances, of the Lord blameless," 



s 



2,58 



SERMON XIL 



THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS IN REFERENCE TO THE 
OBJECTION FOUNDED UPON THEIR IMPERFECTIONS. 

1 TIMOTHY vi. 1. 

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters 
worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not 
blasphemed." 

After showing you, at considerable length, that 
the misconduct of professing Christians forms no 
valid objection to the gospel itself, we remarked 
that this should not make us indifferent to the ob- 
jection, or treat it as if it were of no moment, 
and possessed no influence. On the contrary, we 
should be anxious to meet the objection, by remov- 
ing the ground upon which it is made to rest, — 
to do every thing which can uphold the credit of 
our religion, and to do nothing of which advan- 
tage may be taken to gainsay or to disparage it. 
It is not enough that we demonstrate, however 
clearly and convincingly, the unfairness of the at- 
tack which is made upon it by its adversaries ; we 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



259 



should, moreover, strive to wrest from them the 
very weapons which they employ for its injury or 
its destruction, and to give not the least colour or 
appearance of justice to the hostility with which 
they assail it. We are called upon by every motive 
of gratitude to the Saviour, of regard to the divine 
honour, and of compassion to the souls of men, 
who must be saved by Christianity or not be saved 
at all, to abstain from all those actions and in- 
dulgences by which " the name or the doctrine of 
God may be blasphemed." This is the exhorta- 
tion of the apostle ; and we proposed to illustrate 
it, by pointing out the way in which it is to be 
complied with, so as most effectually to answer the 
end for which it is given. And, in prosecution of 
this object, we observed, in the first place, that 
amidst all your regards for the gospel, you should 
never forget, that it is a practical system, designed 
to produce in you a conformity to the moral law, 
and a resemblance to the moral image of God. 
By steadily regarding it in this light, you will give 
it an authority over every part of your conduct, 
and effectually discomfit the enemies of the gospel, 
who will find it impossible, from any thing they 
observe in you, to " blaspheme the name or the 
doctrine of God." 

In the second place, we remarked, that you 
should apply yourselves to a faithful and conscien- 
tious discharge of the peculiar duties which belong 
to the several relations in which you stand, and to 
the various circumstances in which you are placed. 



260 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



SER. 12.- 



You must not merely be holy in general, but you 
must be holy in your particular calling, connexion, 
or condition ; as masters or as servants, as parents 
or as children, as rulers or as subjects, in poverty 
or in riches, in prosperity or in adversity, in health 
or in sickness. In this way you are to recommend 
the gospel, by displaying its practical worth and 
beneficial moral tendency, by demonstrating that 
it is not a scheme of speculative opinions and of 
barren faith, but a system of substantial purity and 
genuine excellence, accommodated to man with 
the constitution of which he is possessed, and in all 
the situations in which he can be placed. Thus al- 
so, are you to labour that " the name and the doc- 
trine of God be not blasphemed." 

We remarked, in the third place, as more parti- 
cularly suggested by the text, that you must make 
a willing sacrifice, even of certain privileges and 
comforts, when the exigencies of the case require 
it, though, in ordinary circumstances, you would be 
warranted in refusing such a sacrifice, if it were de- 
manded. Such generous and disinterested conduct 
must have the effect, not only of removing preju- 
dices against the gospel, but of producing a positive 
impression in its favour, by showing that Christians, 
while they strive to submit to its practical autho- 
rity in every thing, are also willing to yield this 
submission at the expense of many things which in 
justice they might successfully claim, and innocent- 
ly enjoy, In this way, then, are we to be instru- 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 26 L 

mental in preventing- " the name of God and his 
doctrine from being blasphemed." 

4. I would now, in the fourth place, exhort you 
to live with a habitual reverence to those great and 
peculiar principles by which Christianity is distin- 
guished and characterised. 

Your conduct, indeed, must be more or less in- 
fluenced by these principles, or you would not, 
properly speaking, be Christians at all. You might 
do many things which are in the letter agreeable to 
God's law, and avoid many things which that law, 
in its letter, forbids ; and your character might exhi- 
bit what the outward observer would pronounce to 
be holy. But still, unless all that you thus did and 
manifested, proceeded from those considerations 
which are peculiar to the gospel, it would not 
amount to the holiness which that dispensation is 
intended to produce in its votaries. By Chris- 
tian principles, then, you must, if Christians, be ha- 
bitually actuated and governed. 

But the counsel I would offer you, is that the 
proper principles of the gospel be fondly cherished 
by you — be kept constantly present to your minds — 
and be appealed and yielded to at every step of 
your pilgrimage. You must not be contented with 
having merely embraced them — with giving them 
the homage of your understanding and your heart 
when they become the subjects of your converse or 
meditation — with defending them from the attacks 
of those who would regard them as unscriptural 
and irrational — or with drawing from them the 



262 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 12. 

blessings of hope and consolation. They must ex- 
ercise a perpetual mastery over your desires and 
your doings. Every suggestion which they give, 
must be received. Every action to which they 
prompt, must be performed. Every restraint which 
they impose, must be submitted to. Every sacrifice 
which they dictate, must be made. And your 
thoughts must be so intensely directed to them, 
and you must be so unceasingly conscious of their 
operation, and you must have such an abiding sense 
of their excellence and importance, that wherever 
you are, and in whatever you are engaged, you will 
experience their animating, or their controlling 
power. 

You may be well acquainted with the whole 
range of moral duty, and may be able to say at 
once what it comprehends and what it excludes, 
and to adduce evangelical reasons, for doing the 
one, and not doing the other — and all this may 
produce in you a great degree of self-denial, and 
righteousness, and respectability. But still we have 
to desiderate the unremitting application of Chris- 
tian principles, which will not only serve to make 
you holy as it were by instinct, but will impart 
an energy and an unction to your holiness, and 
render it far more substantial, far more perfect, and 
far more attractive. We not merely desire to see 
a real connexion subsisting between those princi- 
ples and that holiness ; but we desire to see, more- 
over, such a cherished consciousness of that connex- 
ion, as that the former may be sending forth incess- 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 263 

antly their strongest influences upon the latter, and 
pervade every department, and regulate every ac- 
tion of the life. 

Let us illustrate this view of the subject by a few 
examples. If the victim of poverty present him- 
self before you, and supplicate your aid, you know 
it to be an incumbent duty to relieve him if you 
can : and though you had nothing to guide or go- 
vern you but a scripture precept, you would, in obe- 
dience to it, perform the good work. But would 
not you perform it more readily, and more cheer- 
fully, if you remembered " the grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, for your sakes 
became poor, that ye, through His poverty, might 
be made rich?" And would not your heart glow 
with a warmer sympathy still, and would not your 
alms be more liberal, and would not a greater tender- 
ness breathe throughout your words of compassion, 
if you felt, as well as remembered, the grace of the 
Redeemer, if you realized Him in all the depth of 
his condescension, and in all the fulness of His 
mercy, and if at the moment when your charity 
was implored for a suffering fellow-creature, your 
heart had dwelling in it, and working in it, the 
faith, and the love, and the admiration of a suffering 
Saviour ? 

Again, suppose you are tempted to indulge in 
something which wears the aspect of sinfulness, 
but not so decidedly as at once to alarm and deter 
you : it would not be difficult for you to find in 
your store of scriptural maxims, and in your gen- 
eral convictions of right and wrong, a sufficient rea- 



264 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



SER. 12. 



son for abstaining from it. But had you to seek 
for these, and were you left to form a judgment 
after deliberate and lengthened consideration, the 
temptation might have subdued you, before you 
had come to a decision, or at least your preserva- 
tion might not have been secured without a dan- 
gerous struggle. On the other hand, had you been 
in the habit of contemplating the cross of Christ, of 
beholding in it the exceeding turpitude of sin, which 
required his death to expiate it, of considering your- 
selves as bought with the price of his precious blood 
— then the case would not have admitted of a mo- 
ment's hesitation ; your conscience would have 
been tender; you could not have borne the thought 
of " crucifying the Lord afresh •". and you would 
have retreated from the very risk of sinning, and 
from the very " appearance of evil," more than, on 
other principles, you would have done from a visi- 
ble and unequivocal transgression. 

Again, were there some course of duty set before 
you, accompanied with difficulty, and danger, and 
distress, acting as Christians you would doubtless 
enter upon it, and persevere in it, and finish it. 
But there would be little liveliness and little vigour 
in your exertions, while you took merely a dis- 
tant or a desultory view of the motives which 
should stimulate and urge you on. If, on the 
contrary, your minds were previously familiar 
with those truths in the history of redemption 
which most powerfully affect the springs of moral 
action — if you nourished in your bosom the idea 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 265 



of God's redeeming love, manifested in the mis- 
sion and the sacrifice of his own Son — if you 
were accustomed to look up to him as propitiated, 
and reconciled, and invested with all the benig- 
nity and affection of a parent — if a sense of the 
endearing obligations thus laid upon you, were mat- 
ter, not of occasional, but of daily, hourly, unceasing 
experience — in that case, with what alacrity would 
you undertake the duties required of you ! how de- 
lighted would you be to have them as the means 
of testifying your gratitude and devotedness to the 
author of your mercies ! what zeal, what fidelity, 
what activity, what constancy would you display 
in the performance of them ! and how patiently 
would you endure all the sufferings you had to 
bear ! and how resolutely would you struggle with 
all the obstacles that opposed your progress in the 
paths of righteousness ! 

Now, if a habitual reference to the peculiar prin- 
ciples of the gospel be calculated to produce such a 
holy effect, it must tend directly and greatly to aid 
the object of the apostle's exhortation. It will do 
so in a twofold way. First, it will secure a far 
greater degree of excellence in the character of 
Christians. There will be a more decided resis- 
tance to temptation, and a more scrupulous and 
careful abstinence from every thing that partakes 
of moral delinquency. There will be a more con- 
scientious, and more active, and more assiduous 
cultivation of every public and every private virtue. 
There will be a higher tone of feeling, and a high- 



266 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 12. 



er style of acting, than are usually exhibited, even 
among those who are admired and commended for 
their personal worth. And thus, not only will 
there be an absence of those offensive qualities — 
those unbecoming tempers — those unworthy prac- 
tices which, when they appear in professing Chris- 
tians, cause " the name and the doctrine of God to 
be blasphemed," but there will be a display of those 
positive excellences — those beauties of holiness, 
which even the wicked regard with some portion 
of reverence and esteem, and which forbid them to 
speak, or to think, evil of that system with which 
they are associated. And, secondly, there is a more 
intimate connexion established between Christianity 
and Christians, in the judgment of those who wit- 
ness their conduct. If Christians refer to the gos- 
pel, merely as a system of morals, they are not do- 
ing it justice ; and though they should succeed in 
protecting it, in that character, from the reproach, or 
even in recommending it to the adoption, of those 
who have hitherto opposed it, they would not 
thereby act fully up to their obligations ; for in that 
limited character, it is not the gospel as proceeding 
from the wisdom and the grace of God. But when 
they are seen adorned with the manifold attributes 
of moral virtue — with all that is pure, and lovely, 
and of good report ; when they can appeal to the 
peculiar principles of Christianity, as the source 
from which such distinctions proceed ; and when 
the relation of the one to the other is made appar- 
ent and undeniable, then, not only are the mouths 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. c 26j 

of gainsayers stopped, but they are taught to ad- 
mire Christianity as a system of sanctifying truth, 
as well as a system of practical duty, and viewing 
it as calculated, by its peculiar nature, to renovate, 
to purify, to ennoble, frail and fallen man, they 
may, by the divine blessing, be constrained to ex- 
change the language of blasphemy for the accents 
of praise, and to give glory to God's name which 
is holy, and to believe in his doctrine which is " a 
doctrine according to godliness," because it is a 
doctrine of free and saving grace. 

5. In the fifth place, I would exhort you to be 
much given to the exercise of prayer. 

I take it for granted that you do not neglect this 
duty, because, if you neglect it, you are not the 
real disciples of Jesus. There may be a professor 
of Christianity, but there is no sincere or real 
Christian, who is a stranger to prayer — who is des- 
titute of its spirit, or by whom it is practically dis- 
regarded. This is evident, both from its own na- 
ture and from the manner in which it is commanded 
and enforced ; and experience, as well as scripture, 
demonstrates the necessity of its forming a regular 
and constituent part of a religious life. 

But, if you have seriously attended to the con- 
nexion which subsists between prayer and practice, 
and to what you yourselves must have felt and ob- 
served in reference to it, you cannot but be aware, 
that many of the defects by which your practice has 
been marked, have arisen from your remissness in 
the duty of prayer ; that the less intercourse of 



268 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



SER. 12. 



this kind you held with your heavenly Father, the 
more apt have you been to listen to the voice of 
temptation, and to be overcome by it ; that it was 
often by forgetting" to go to the throne of grace, 
and to supplicate there the wisdom, and the strength, 
and the blessing which you needed, that you were 
overtaken in those faults which have wounded your 
own conscience, and given occasion to the enemies 
of religion to blaspheme ; that, in short, had there 
been more devotion, there would have been more 
purity of mind, more vigilance against the snares 
of the world, more strenuous endeavours to main- 
tain a conscience and a conduct void of offence, 
more actual and abundant attainments in Christian 
holiness. 

Nor is it difficult to see how a failure in the one 
should be necessarily productive of failures in the 
other department of your Christian calling. Pray- 
er is enjoined as plainly, and as peremptorily, as any 
moral virtue which you are called to practise. It 
is pressed upon you by similar obligations ; it is re- 
commended by similar motives ; it issues in similar 
results. It is as necessary as the other, to form the 
aggregate of your obedience to God's will upon 
earth, and of your preparation for his presence in 
heaven. And this being the case, you cannot be 
remiss in it, or forgetful of it, without violating 
what you owe to him, as your Lord and King. 
But withholding submission to him in one thing, 
naturally leads to withholding submission to him 
in another. The claim of his high authority, 



SER. l c 2. 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



269 



or of his redeeming love being once deliberately 
resisted, you become a more easy prey to sinful 
allurements, though they beset you in a different 
quarter, and lead you to partake of a different 
indulgence. If you do not pray, though God com- 
mands you, and beseeches you to do so, what is 
there to restrain you from transgression in some- 
thing else, if you be tempted to it, where there is 
no other barrier, or no barrier more impassable than 
that which you have already violated — the com- 
mandment and the entreaty of a great and merciful 
God. Be assured, my friends, that all the princi- 
ples, and all the practices of moral obedience, or of 
spiritual submission, to the divine will, are so inti- 
mately and closely linked together, that you can- 
not dispense with one of them without being there- 
by more easily persuaded to surrender another. 
The whole is a sacred and connected territory, and 
if you allow the tempter to invade and to establish 
himself in any corner of it, you facilitate his con- 
quest of any position he may choose to attack, or 
wish to occupy. Prayer is as much a duty as any 
thing' else that is required of you in the law of 
God ; and to neglect it, implies a disregard of 
those principles and motives which secure the per- 
formance of every other duty, and therefore pre- 
pares the way for neglecting any observance which 
interferes with our worldly interest or worldly 
pleasure. 

But farther, prayer is an instituted means of be^ 
coming, and continuing, holy. You cannot keep 



270 



CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 1 C L 



yourselves from sin, or secure your progress in the 
paths of righteousness, by any resources of your 
own. This is one melancholy feature of your fal- 
len state— declared in the scriptures of truth, and 
evinced in every man's personal history. And we 
have reason to bless God, that while the gospel 
acknowledges the fact, the gospel also makes suit- 
able provision for remedying the evil which it im- 
plies. It promises to supply the want by impart- 
ing the strength that is needed. It points out the 
source from which the requisite aid is to be derived. 
And it distinctly intimates that prayer is the instru- 
ment by which you are to apply for it, and the 
medium through which you are to obtain it. Now, 
if in this point you be careless and negligent, what 
can be the result, but a proportional declension in 
the ways of holiness ? If the appointed means be 
not adequately employed, how can you expect to 
secure the end which is offered only on these terms? 
And I do not merely, in this view, insist on the ne- 
cessity of general supplication, as if that were suf- 
ficient — as if it were quite enough to be sensible of 
general weakness in the spiritual frame, and to of- 
fer up a general petition for the communication 
of corresponding strength. It is probably from 
this mode of indulging in generalities on the sub- 
ject, that, even where individuals are regular, and 
frequent, and fervent in their devotions, there is so 
much backsliding, and so little progress. If you 
have a particular duty to perform, and yet do not 
ask grace, and direction, and help, in reference to 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



271 



that particular duty, 110 wonder that there is a fail- 
ure in the degree of purity and perfection with 
which you discharge it. And, if you be tempted 
to any particular sin, and yet do not implore ap- 
propriate guidance and aid, so that you may be en- 
abled to avoid that particular sin, it cannot be 
greatly marvelled at, that you should be betrayed 
into the commission of it. In this manner, neglect 
of prayer, or an undue observance of it as a means 
ordained by Him, to whom it is addressed for 
guarding us against transgression, and carrying on 
the process of sanctification with vigour and success, 
must be attended with many of those moral failings 
and aberrations which bring disrepute on our re- 
ligion, as well as impair the character, and disturb 
the peace, of those who are guilty of them. 

There is still another consideration illustrative 
of this point which deserves attention. A life of 
prayer is calculated, in its own nature, to purify the 
heart, and elevate the character. In the course of 
that life you spend much time in communion with 
a Being who is " glorious in holiness" — in contem- 
plating his perfections, which are all in league 
against sin — in referring to his will which has de- 
clared itself " against all unrighteousness, and un- 
godliness of men" — in appealing to that revelation 
of his mercy in the gospel, which so illustrates his 
hatred of iniquity, and his love of moral excellence, 
in the scheme which it unfolds for your deliverance 
from the one and your restoration to the other. 
And in coming from your devotional intercourse 



27^ CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 12. 

with God, you come as it were from heaven, where 
all that you have seen, and all that you have learn- 
ed, and all that you have felt, is holy ; where the 
atmosphere which you breathed is purity itself ; and 
where you were furnished with the spirit that shall 
lift you above the corruptions of the world, and 
animate you to the cultivation of all that is virtuous 
and good. But if you allow yourselves to be per- 
petually, or disproportionately, occupied with world- 
ly things, with sensible objects, w r ith common du- 
ties, detached from the influence and the exercises 
of devotion — if you be maintaining much converse 
with the creature, of whom imperfection and sin 
are characteristic, and little with the Creator, whose 
nature, and character, and purposes, and plans, are 
all distinguished by unspotted purity and rectitude 
— it cannot fail to happen that your conduct will 
partake of the qualities of that to which you have 
given such an undue preference, that there will 
not be such a scrupulous and determined resistance 
to the allurements of sin as more devotional habits 
would have secured, that there will not be the 
same relish for high attainments in virtue, and the 
same eager and animated efforts to become " holy 
even as God himself is holy," that there will be 
more of those shortcomings and trespasses which 
give a handle to the blasphemer, and fewer of those 
amiable graces, and unequivocal excellences, of de- 
portment, which might have checked his blasphemy, 
or converted it into praise* 

We exhort you, therefore, in whatever situation 



SER. 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



273 



you are, and whatever be the advances you have 
made in your Christian course, to be " instant in 
prayer," — to " pray without ceasing," — " in every 
thing- by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving 
to make your requests known unto God." This 
will help to purify all the springs of conduct — to 
elevate your views and affections above every 
thing base and polluted. It will procure for you 
from on high " the whole armour of God," by which 
you will be protected from the assaults of tempta- 
tion, and enabled to subdue the enemies that would 
drive or seduce you from the ways of righteousness. 
And thus, by its indirect influence, and the divine 
help which it procures, it will enable you to act 
habitually, so that through you " the name of God, 
and his doctrine shall not be blasphemed." 

6. In the last place, we exhort you to live habi- 
tually under the powers of the world to come. 

So much and so intimately are we connected 
with this world, that nothing can deliver us from 
it, or lift us above it, but the faith which carries our 
views into a future world, and brings before us its 
great and momentous realities. And it uniformly 
happens, that in proportion as we neglect to give 
our faith that direction, or rest satisfied with a feeble 
or a partial exercise of it, in that proportion do we 
languish in our Christian efforts, and allow sin to 
regain its ascendency over us. Every one of us 
must have observed this in the case of others. 
Every one must have experienced it in his own 
case. It arises from the very nature and circum- 

T 



$74 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 1(2. 

stances of human beings. And though the believer 
is rescued from the dominion of iniquity and of this 
present evil world, yet it is a part of the salvation 
wrought out for him, that his views are directed to 
eternity ; and his conduct will, in a great measure, 
depend on the frequency and the intensity with 
which he looks forward to it, and on the submissive- 
ness with which he yields to that practical influence 
which it is fitted to exert upon his whole deport- 
ment. Of the numerous instances, in which you 
have indulged in forbidden gratification, or trans- 
gressed the rule of duty, there are not a few, I am 
confident, in which were you asked, why you thus 
sinned, you would answer, because, for the time, 
you had banished futurity from your view, and did 
not think, as you ought to have thought, of the strict 
account you have to render, and of the everlasting 
destiny which awaits you. 

Let me, then, entreat you to retain, and to che- 
rish, in your minds, a settled impression of eternity. 
Hemember that you have to undergo a great 
change, and to encounter a solemn reckoning at 
the tribunal of a righteous and heart-searching 
Judge. Remember that you have to answer for 
" the deeds done in the body, whether they be good 
or bad." Remember that your responsibility em- 
braces not only your conduct considered in it- 
self, but also as it affects the conduct and the 
fate of your fellow-men, and the interests of the 
gospel in a present state. And let these things 
awaken in you a solemn concern, not merely that 



SER* 12. CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. 



275 



you may be prepared by a life of faith, and piety, 
and holiness for the great scene that lies before you, 
but that you may abstain from even the slightest 
transgression which would either lay a stumbling- 
block in the way of a Christian brother, or prove 
a ground of offence and of blaspheming to " them 
that are without." Think of the hell which awaits 
the wicked, that you may see what " an evil and a 
bitter thing it is to sin against God/' since it leads 
him to condemn many of his rational creatures who 
have committed it, and have not had it washed 
away, to unspeakable and never-ending misery ; and 
seeing that the ways and the issue of it are death, 
that you may tremble at his word, and keep your- 
selves from the abominable thing which he hates 
with so perfect a hatred. Think of the heaven, 
into which they, that have turned unto the Lord, 
and have walked in the ways of his commandments, 
are finally introduced, that from the contemplation 
of all the holiness and happiness which it presents 
to the believer's eye, you may derive that divine in- 
fluence which shall reach into your heart, and per- 
vade all your actions, and hedge you in to the path 
of cheerful and devoted obedience, and lead you to 
f 6 purify yourselves even as God himself is pure." 
Think of the shortness and the uncertainty of life, of 
which not merely every passing year, but every pass- 
ing day, affords you the most striking proofs, that you 
may not be tempted to lose one opportunity that is 
afforded you for performing the work of righteous- 
ness — that you maybe determined to redeem the time 



276 CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS. SER. 12. 

which you have already wasted, that you may not 
spend one moment more in forbidden indulgence — 
that, neither in word nor in deed, you may be the 
occasion of exposing- the doctrine of God to ridicule 
or reproach — that you may justify your highest pro- 
fession by the purest practice, and " let your light 
so shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 
And, my brethren, living thus by faith in the Son 
of God, consecrating yourselves to that service of 
His in which sin and Satan have no share, and con- 
tributing to the diffusion and the establishment of 
the gospel of salvation, every coming day, as it ar- 
rives, will find you ready for your departure, be- 
cause it will find you walking as the redeemed and 
the sanctified of the Lord ; — and whether you be 
servants or masters, rich or poor, young or old, 
mighty or mean, yet, having "kept the faith," and "fi- 
nished your course," and proved a blessing to many 
that were ignorant and perishing, death, be it lin- 
gering or be it sudden, shall only remove you from 
a scene that is restless and polluted, to that land of 
purity and of bliss, where " they that are wise shall 
shine as the firmament, and they that have turned 
many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
ever." 



Til 



SERMON XIIL* 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 

MATTHEW vii. 7- 
" Ask, and it shall be given you" 

We have frequently addressed you on the subject 
of prayer ; but in the present discourse we propose 
merely to illustrate some of the encouragements that 
are afforded for engaging in this exercise. 

God commands us to pray to him ; not leaving 
it to our own discretion whether we shall pray or 
not — but positively and expressly enjoining the duty 
as requisite, equally as an act of homage due to him- 
self, and as the means of securing our own welfare. 
But, though convinced that we must pray, if we 
would render obedience to the divine authority, 
and promote the safety and well-being of our 
souls, still there are various considerations to 

* Preached in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, on Sabbath, 7th 
November, 1830, before the celebration of the Lord's Supper. 



278 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13. 

which it is expedient to attend, and under whose 
constraining influence it is necessary to act, in or- 
der that we may engage in that exercise freely, 
cheerfully, and confidently — that we may enjoy all 
the satisfaction and pleasure with which it ought to 
be accompanied — and that we may completely sur- 
mount those hinderances and interruptions, which 
not only tend to distress the young and inexpe- 
rienced Christian, but even have the effect of occa- 
sionally impairing the devotion of those who are 
most confirmed in the ways of piety. It is to the 
considerations in question that we mean at present 
to direct your thoughts, in the hope that they may 
contribute to your improvement in a most import- 
ant branch of the Christian character, and that they 
may derive both illustration and force from the so- 
lemn service in which we are this day to be more 
immediately engaged. 

I. In the first place, let it be remembered, that 
the God to whom you pray is as willing and ready, 
as he is able, to bestow upon you the blessings that 
you need and ask. 

Of his power to answer your prayers, it is im- 
possible for you to doubt. He is absolute proprie- 
tor of the universe. Every thing in it, material 
and immaterial, is at his sovereign disposal. And 
he can give it in the measure, and in the mode, and 
in the season, that seem good in his sight. All this 
your minds admit, without the least hesitation. But 
whether he may be pleased to exert his omnipotence 

in communicating what you entreat of him, is a dif- 

1 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. QJ(J 

ferent question. And when you think of the sepa- 
ration which sin has made between you and him ; 
when you look to him as a holy, and a just, and a 
jealous God ; and when you think of the demerit 
which he sees in your character, and of the provo- 
cations by which you have awakened his displea- 
sure, and given him reason to send you a curse in- 
stead of a blessing — it is not unnatural for you to 
feel as if he would turn a deaf ear to your suppli- 
cations, and to ask a supply to your wants, if you 
ask it at all, with the chilling- apprehension that 
it will either be wholly refused, or granted with 
a frown. 

Now, let me assure you, my believing friends, 
that all such ideas are groundless and unworthy — 
that they proceed from most mistaken views of that 
Being to whom your prayers are addressed — and 
that, whenever they intrude into your minds, they 
•ought to be instantly banished, as not less disho- 
nourable to God, than they are injurious to your 
own comfort, For, 

First, The very circumstance of God's com- 
manding you to pray, implies in it an assurance 
that he will listen to your prayer. You cannot 
suppose, that, in enjoining upon you such an appli- 
cation to him, he is mocking and trifling with you, 
making an empty display of his authority, and sport- 
ing with your feelings, and your expectations, and 
your necessities. The inconsistency which this 
supposition involves may be displayed by sin- 
ful and capricious man ; but it can have no place 



280 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13. 



in the dealings of God with his creatures. There 
is an untainted honour, and there is a perfect con- 
sistency, in all his doings, which forbid the very 
thought. In that general attribute of goodness, 
and more especially in that particular exercise of 
it which is denominated mercy, and which is as- 
cribed to him in his treatment of the destitute and 
the miserable, you might discover something like a 
ground which would warrant you to hope that 
your prayers will be heard and answered. But, 
when you recollect, that, besides this, he actually 
holds out his mercy as that for whose communica- 
tions you not only may, but must in duty, beseech 
him, the ground of hope assumes a broader aspect 
— a more sure and stable form. You cannot but 
be sensible, that, in the very language in which he 
bids you ask of him what you need, he pledges him- 
self to give it without fail, and without reluctance. 
And this pledge is as extensive as is the command- 
ment, — reaching, therefore, throughout the whole 
range of your wants, and embracing in it every in- 
dividual benefit that is necessary to your happiness. 
When he requires you to ask, he does not limit you 
to one or more of the good things which are indis- 
pensable to the improvement of your character, or 
to the fulness of your joy. His requisition includes 
them all ; and, consequently, you may be satisfied 
— for it cannot be otherwise — that he is ready to 
bestow them all. 

2. But God does not leave you to any thing like 
mere inference on this point : and I have drawn 



SER. 13. 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



281 



your attention to the consideration now stated, 
chiefly for the purpose of showing you, that even 
from the sterner view in which God presents himself 
to his people, — that of a lawgiver and a ruler — they 
may draw encouragement to pray in the spirit of 
liberty. He does not, I say, leave you to any thing 
like mere inference on this point. He condescends 
to make explicit declarations of his willingness to 
fulfil the desires and petitions of your hearts, and 
he expresses this willingness in the language of un* 
equivocal promise — of distinct and positive assu- 
rance. Of this you meet with multiplied and satis- 
fying proofs in his holy word. His word, indeed, 
may be justly said to be one continued proof of it. 
For while there are many passages in which prayer 
and promise are explicitly conjoined, every instance 
in which God intimates his readiness to give bless- 
ings to his people, though it be not expressly con- 
nected with prayer, is to be regarded as having the 
same meaning as if it were ; because it is the doc- 
trine of scripture, and what no Christian can for- 
get, that every blessing he receives, presupposes 
prayer as the appointed means of obtaining it. 
Well, therefore, may we assert that the Bible is 
full of the divine testimony to this statement that 
God's ear is ever open to your cry, and that his 
hand is ever ready to convey to you the blessings 
that you need and solicit. 

And, if I must quote any particular part of the 
sacred volume to illustrate the reality and the ex- 
tent of God's willingness to answer prayer, I would 



c 28°2 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13- 

remind you of these words, (Matth. xxi. 22.) " All 
things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, 
ye shall receive." These are words addressed to 
you from heaven, by the mouth of Him, who is ap- 
pointed to reveal to you the mercy and the will of 
God, and in whom you have placed your confi- 
dence as " the faithful and true witness." They 
proclaim, in emphatic terms, the absolute certainty 
of your receiving from him, to whom you direct 
your prayer, the things that you ask. And they 
are of the most generous and comprehensive im- 
port, as to the number and variety of those bless- 
ings which you are entitled to supplicate, or may 
expect to obtain. Not that you can either ask, or 
look for, any thing that fancy, or caprice, or ignor- 
ance, or corrupt inclination may dictate or suggest. 
Such things are, in the very nature of the case, ex- 
cluded. Whatever you ask must be that which God 
warrants or permits you to ask, as being either di- 
rectly conducive or really necessary to your attain- 
ment of that salvation and that felicity to which he 
teaches you to aspire. But there is no moral quali- 
ty, no spiritual comfort, no possession of any kind, 
which comes within that description, that you may 
not ask ; nay that you ought not to ask. And if 
you ask it, the petition finds a response in the mind 
of that compassionate Being who " giveth to all 
men liberally and upbraideth not," and will infalli- 
bly secure for you, sooner or later, in its suitable 
degree, and as to all its proper effect, the particular 
benefit, whatever it is, for which you have applied. 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



283 



God himself tells you this ; and it argues an un- 
believing heart, when you allow any suspicion to 
arise within you that he will not fulfil what he has 
so graciously promised. His willingness is so 
strongly proclaimed, and so frequently repeated, 
and so closely associated with all that is true and 
holy in his character, that you should feel as much 
assured of it, as if you already possessed and en- 
joyed the mercies which as yet you have only 
implored — agreeably to the statement of the apos- 
tle John ; " This is the confidence that we have 
in him, that if we ask any thing according to bis 
will, he heareth us ; and if we know that he hear 
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the 
petitions that we desired of him." 

There is another declaration made by our Lord 
in his valedictory discourse, which very strikingly 
illustrates the same truth, (John xvi. 26, 270 "At 
that day, ye shall ask in my name ; and I say not 
unto you, that I will pray the Father for you ; for 
the Father himself loveth you, because ye have 
loved me, and have believed that I came out from 
God." — " I say not unto you, I will pray the Father 
for you" — as if my intercession were necessary to 
extort from God, what he is otherwise reluctant to 
give, or determined to withhold. He has, indeed, 
appointed that intercession as a constituent part of 
the scheme by which you are redeemed, and as it 
will not be forgotten by me, so neither can it be 
disregarded by you. But it is itself an institution 
of divine grace. It is an indication of that love of 



284 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 18. 

God which prompts him to give you all things per- 
taining* to life and godliness. And being believers 
in me as having come from him, and having loved 
me as his Son and your Saviour, you are the objects 
of his peculiar affection. He loves you as his own 
by the most endearing tie. He has devised a plan 
by which he may righteously and richly shower 
down upon you the most invaluable blessings. 
And, when I plead your cause with him, and sup- 
plicate for you and your need, I address myself to 
my Father and your Father — one whose thoughts 
towards you are already thoughts of love, who re- 
gards you with overflowing kindness, and will de- 
light in doing you good. You have no reason, 
therefore, to fear a cold reception, or a stern 
denial of your requests. Abundant reason have 
you, on the contrary, to pray without doubting, and 
without reserve, for whatsoever you stand in need 
of. " Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may 
be full." — It was thus that our Lord cheered and 
encouraged his more immediate disciples in the 
matter of prayer. And the same arguments I am 
called upon to urge, for the same purpose, upon 
you who, like them, love and believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. You are the objects, as were they, 
of the Father's tender and affectionate regards ; 
and through all the clouds which have risen upon 
your view, and veiled the throne at which you 
bend, it is your duty and you privilege to pene- 
trate ; to recognise the countenance of God beaming 
upon you with ineffable benignity, and to feel ani- 

3 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



285 



mated in spreading out your wants before him, by 
the interesting fact, that in him there is a well- 
spring of mercy, from which he will bountifully 
supply them all. 

3. Again, let me turn your attention to some of 
those representations of himself which God has 
been pleased to give to his suppliant people, and by 
which they are encouraged to draw near to him in 
prayer. For instance, he is represented as seated 
on a throne of grace. Now, you are never to con- 
template God as divested of the attributes of holi- 
ness and justice. These are essential to him, and 
enter into every correct and comprehensive idea of 
his character. But then, were you to think of him, 
only as holy to hate the sin which he sees in you, and 
just to visit it with merited punishment, all approach 
to him would be felt to be presumption, and all sup- 
plication would appear to be vain. He therefore, re- 
veals himself to you as occupying a throne of grace 
— thus assuring you of his favour, and inviting you 
to come to him without dread and without misgiv- 
ing. He sits upon " a throne, high and lifted up," 
with every thing at his command, and controlled 
by no created power in the communication of his 
gifts. He is holy and just, indeed ; but his holiness 
has been so honoured, and his justice so satisfied, 
that they form no hinderance to the operation of 
his grace — which is free to expatiate upon all the 
objects of his regard, to the full extent of their ne- 
cessities. This grace is so abundant in its riches, 
so liberal in its outgivings, so unchecked and 



286 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13* 



unrestricted in the generosity of its designs, and so 
accessible to all who need its interposition and its 
aid, that it is mentioned as characteristic of his 
throne ; as not merely something by which it is 
distinguished in common with other properties of 
a different kind, but as having such a prominence 
and such an ascendency that all other properties are 
subordinated by it and absorbed in it, as the quality 
in short that gives the name by which God's throne 
is spoken of, and by which it is consecrated in the 
estimation of all his worshipping people. It is not 
the throne of majesty— it is not the throne of ven- 
geance — it is not the throne of holiness and justice. 
It is the throne of grace — He who sits upon it is the 
God of grace — the invitation that issues from it is the 
invitation of grace — -the blessings that it holds out are 
the blessings of grace. This is the throne, my be- 
lieving friends, that you go to — that you bow before 
— that you address, when you ask what you need. 
And why does God speak of himself as occupying 
such a throne, if it be not to impress you with the 
persuasion, that so far from turning away your 
prayers from him, you cannot be more desirous to 
receive, than he is willing to bestow ? Let your 
wants be what they may ; let them be so great that 
you cannot calculate them, so numerous that you 
cannot reckon them, so urgent that you are ready 
to sink under them — let them be what they may, 
— there is in that one word " grace," which desig- 
nates the throne where you are to implore relief, what 
may satisfy you that there is not only a sufficiency 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



287 



wherewith to supply them all, but a decided and an 
unreserved readiness to minister to them all. Even 
let it be supposed that your conscience has been 
writing the bitterest things against you — that your 
transgressions appear to you in the most aggravated 
colours — that you feel your heart hard and insensi- 
ble as a rock — that a conviction of utter unworthi- 
ness has taken possession of your soul — and that 
you are afraid to look to God, or to ask from him 
the pardon, the sanctification, the comfort, of which 
you are as undeserving as you are needful — still I 
must exhort you to have recourse to his throne, and to 
take encouragement from this, that it is " the throne 
of grace." The righteous Lord sits upon that 
throne ; but his face has no frown upon it — his 
voice has no terror in it. On whatever part of 
that throne you cast your eye, you see it inscribed 
with grace in all its variety of application to your 
circumstances. There is grace to blot out your 
trespasses, though they be " red like crimson." There 
is grace to purify your hearts, though they be full 
of all uncleanness. There is grace to subdue your 
enemies, though they " come upon you as a flood." 
There is grace to console you amidst all your sor- 
rows, though they be great and multiplied, and pro- 
tracted. There is grace to guide you through life, 
to cheer you at death, and to carry you to heaven. 
And as surely as God sits upon that throne of 
grace, so surely will he listen to the prayers that 
you prefer at his footstool, and uphold the charac- 
ter which he himself has enstamped upon it, by 



288 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13. 

freely tendering- and imparting- to you whatsoever 
you ask in sincerity and faith. 

While God represents himself as seated on a 
throne of grace, he also represents himself under 
the endearing character of a Father. He is a Father, 
indeed, whom you have offended by apostacy and 
disobedience ; but his anger has been turned away, 
reconciliation has been effected \ and he has sent 
forth the " Spirit of adoption" unto your hearts, 
whereby you can look up to him, and say, " Abba, 
Father." And viewing him as standing in this pa- 
ternal relation, you cannot but feel convinced that 
he will give you what you ask, as " his children by 
faith in Jesus Christ." For the leading and predo- 
minant idea conveyed in that relationship is, that 
hel oves you and will provide for you, and will de- 
light to confer upon you whatever is requisite for 
your prosperity and comfort. An affectionate fa- 
ther has it continually, and as an inherent instinct 
in his heart, to supply all the wants of his children ; 
and when they implore his help, whether it be to 
support, or to protect, or to guide, or to console, 
or to advance them, there is no indifference, no 
aversion, no reluctance in his breast, — but such a 
tenderness towards them, such a concern for their 
safety and well-being, such a desire to deliver them 
from evil and to do them good, that almost no 
sacrifice is deemed too costly by which this feeling 
may be practically manifested ; and even ingrati- 
tude and undutifulness can scarcely restrain the 
beneficence in which it is disposed to go forth upon 



SElt. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 289 

its beloved objects. And " like as a father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
him." Whatever regard an earthly father can be 
supposed to pay to his helpless and dependent chil- 
dren, may be confidently expected of our heavenly 
Father, towards those whom he has adopted in- 
to the family of the redeemed, and whom he ac- 
knowledges as his ransomed offspring. His eye 
is upon them for good ; his ear is open to their 
cry ; his heart longs for opportunities of blessing 
them \ and his readiness to impart to them what they 
need and ask, has this superiority over the workings 
of all mere human attachments, that while it will 
give, even to importunity, nothing that is hurtful 
or unsuitable, it prompts the petitions for what 
alone is safe or beneficial, and answers these by the 
wisest, and the most liberal, communications. Our 
Saviour appeals to this illustration of God's willing- 
ness to answer the requests of his people, when he 
is urging upon the disciples the duty of prayer — as 
you find in the verses succeeding our text. " Or 
what man is there of you" — let him even be more 
than ordinarily deficient in the affections of kin- 
dred — " what man is there of you whom if his 
son ask bread, will he give him a stone ?— or if he 
ask a fish will he give him a serpent ?" Is there 
any one of you so cruel and so hardened, as either 
to refuse what his children in duty or from neces- 
sity demand of him, or to give them, instead of it, 
what is useless or injurious? On the contrary, 
will not his heart yearn towards them with the 

u 



290 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SEIl. 13. 

tenderest sympathy, and will not he be disposed to 
fulfil, as bountifully as he can, all the desires which 
they have expressed ? "If ye, then, being evil" 
— with a nature that is imperfect and corrupt, and 
whose corruption and imperfection must necessarily 
cleave to all your best affections, and all your wor- 
thiest doings-— if ye, being thus evil, are inclined 
and " know how to give good gifts unto your chil- 
dren, how much more shall your Father which is in 
Heaven"- — in whom no defect can be conceived to 
exist, and whose paternal love is too strong to be 
ever weakened, and too rich to be ever exhausted 
—how much more shall such a Father " give good 
things to them that ask him !" Such a Father is 
your Father in Heaven, my believing brethren. 
And why should not you go to him and make your 
requests known to him, without any fear of having 
your suit rejected ; or rather with the confidence 
of obtaining from him what you need and suppli- 
cate, Has any thing occurred to discourage you 
from drawing near to God in prayer, and asking from 
him any of the blessings which are yet warrantable 
subjects of petition, and requisite for your welfare ? 
Be assured that the discouragement has no founda- 
tion in truth, and should have no influence on your 
minds. Remember that the God whom you thus 
tremble to approach, and whose mercy you thus 
distrust, is your Father, and that this is a character 
which he has assumed, and in which he appears to 
you, for the very purpose of reviving, establishing, 
and cherishing your confidence in him. Do not 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. OQ 1 

dishonour him by imagining that he will lay it 
aside, or act inconsistently with it, in any part of 
the intercourse which he maintains with you, or of 
the treatment which he gives you, as those whom 
he has taught to look to him with filial regard. 
And, especially, beware of allowing such thoughts 
to enter your minds, when your circumstances dic- 
tate to you the exercise of that precious privilege 
which holds such an important place amid the vari- 
ous privileges that belong to the sons and the 
daughters of a redeeming God — the privilege of 
asking from him whatever blessing is accommodat- 
ed to your need. Rather go with the freedom, and 
the frankness, and the undoubting affiance of those 
whom he has called to be his children, and whom 
he therefore invites into his presence, and assures 
of an affectionate reception ; and spread out all the 
wants of your condition, and pour out all the de- 
sires of your hearts before him — satisfied that he 
cannot but be willing and ready to give you every 
token of his loving-kindness which your exigencies 
may require. Whenever any thing happens to keep 
you away from him, or to hinder your applications 
to him, as if 6 ' he had forgotten to be gracious, and 
would be favourable no more," call to mind what 
you were once enabled to say on the warrant and 
by the help of his own Spirit, " doubtless thou art 
our Father and on that ground, ask what you 
will, without fear, and without wavering. And let 
the encouragement which thus arises from remem- 
bering God's willingness to hear and answer your 



292 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13. 

requests, be continually present to your mind, and 
be realized to your feelings, by your habitually pre- 
facing your devotional applications to him with that 
significant and cheering address, " Our Father 
which art in Heaven." 

4. I have still to mention another proof of God's 
willingness to bestow the blessings that you need 
and ask. And this consists in his having given his 
own Son to save you by his sufferings and his 
death. It is impossible for us to estimate the value 
of this gift, or to conceive what love it implied 
on the part of God from whom it proceeded. But, 
whether we look to the declarations of scripture 
respecting it, or attend to its nature and conse- 
quences, so far as we are capable of comprehending 
them, its value must be accounted infinite, and we 
must consider it as bespeaking a love, that " passeth 
knowledge." Now, my believing friends, you have 
received that gift : you have been permitted to con- 
template, to admire, to experience, its excellence ; 
and you will be ready to confess that, both as to 
the mercy in which it originated, and the extent 
and magnitude of its importance to your souls, it is 
unspeakably and immeasurably great. But ac- 
knowledging and feeling this, why should you ever 
be doubtful of receiving any thing that you ask, in 
so far as it is essential or conducive to your real 
welfare ? You have already received the greater 
boon ; and can any reason be assigned for your not 
receiving, with equal certainty and liberality, all the 
lesser boons? The bestowal of the former inti- 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



293 



mates a boundless compassion in the Being who im- 
parted it ; and when it is the very same Being to 
whom you apply for every thing else, have not you 
ample security in his boundless compassion for the 
attainment of the latter ? And as the one would 
not be effectual to its purposes, respecting your final 
salvation, which it was intended to secure, without 
the others being conveyed to you in all their ap- 
pointed variety and abundance, do you not see that 
the wisdom and the faithfulness, as well as the 
mercy, of God are pledged, to grant them as consti- 
tuent parts of his own plan of redemption ? These 
considerations are sufficient, and more than suffi- 
cient, to satisfy you that he must be perfectly will- 
ing to answer your petitions for every thing con- 
nected with your present welfare and your future 
happiness. The apostle Paul employs this very 
argument, when he says, " He that spared not his 
own Son, but delivered him up for us all ; how 
shall He not with him, also, freely give us all 
things ?" These words represent it as utterly im- 
possible that any of the subordinate blessings should 
be refused, or should not be conferred with the ut- 
most readiness and generosity, since that has been 
conferred on which they all depend, and which ex- 
ceeds them all in its intrinsic worth, and conferred 
by Him who, in the mission, the humiliation, and 
the sacrifice of his own dear Son, has afforded such 
an overpowering display of love, that it would be 
irrational in itself and injurious to his character, 
to harbour even the slightest suspicion of his un- 



$§4 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 13. 

willingness to give to his people any one of all the 
multiplied comforts and advantages which can en- 
ter into the lot, or can contribute to the well-being 
of a redeemed soul. You may be assured, then, 
that God will not, and cannot despise the prayer, 
which ascends to him from your hearts ; which is 
offered up in faith, and which refers to benefits that 
you need and are authorized to ask. Pray for 
these ; and when at any time the apprehension 
steals in upon you, that they will not be given, call 
to mind the ineffable gift of his own Son, that you 
may be encouraged to ask ; and let your belief in its 
atoning efficacy, as well as in its inestimable preci- 
ousness, give energy and urgency to the requests 
that you send up to Heaven. Be assured that that 
gift is the earnest of every other. He to whose 
unparalleled bounty you are indebted for it, will 
give you grace here, and glory hereafter, and will 
withhold from you nothing that is good. " What 
is your petition and what is your request ?" Pre- 
sent it ; and He " will give" you, not only " to the 
half," but the whole of that salvation which he has 
provided for you in the gospel. And amidst all 
your misgivings, and anxieties, and apprehensions, 
encourage your hearts, by remembering these words, 
" Fear not ; for it is your Father's good pleasure 
to give you the kingdom." " Ask, and ye shall 
receive." 

And let the holy ordinance of communion, in 
which you are now to engage, inspire you with re- 
newed confidence in the exercise of prayer. It is 



SER. 13. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. r 2 ( J<5 

well fitted to do so. For it sets before you that 
very gift of God which implies, or which brings 
along with it, all others. At the table of the Lord, 
you partake of the memorials of that sacrifice by 
which God makes over to you, who receive them in 
faith, all the blessings and privileges which you can 
possibly desire to make you perfectly and for ever 
blessed. And in virtue of your union with Christ, 
and your interest in his finished work, " all things 
are yours." Why then should you be fearful or 
backward to ask what is thus your own by cove- 
nant-right and by solemn engagement ? Over the 
symbols of Christ's broken body and shed blood, 
take courage, and plead for whatever your circum- 
stances require. Carry with you the remembrance 
of his death into all your scenes of devotion, and 
let it embolden and stimulate you to implore even 
the richest blessings that are laid up in the store- 
house of divine bounty. And with hearts enlarged 
by the influence of those considerations which we 
have been pressing on your attention, and guided 
by the Spirit of all grace, " pray without ceasing,'' 
and " in every thing by prayer and supplication, 
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known 
unto God." Bear about with you the promise and 
the pledge for its fulfilment, and recal them to your 
recollection as often as you come before his throne, 
and especially when doubts and suspicions would 
fetter your devotion, or keep you at a distance from 
the Hearer of prayer. " Ask, and it shall be given 
you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 



296 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

be opened unto you : for every one that asketh, 
receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to 
him that knocketh, it shall be opened." 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION .* 

Before we separate, my friends, let me address 
to you a few exhortations suited to the circum- 
stances in which you now stand, as having* been 
engaged in the solemn duty of commemorating the 
Saviour's dying love. I shall endeavour to com- 
prise what I have to say within as small a compass 
as possible. At the same time, you will allow me 
to address myself, for a little, to the different classes 
into which, in point of conduct and condition, my 
hearers may be considered as, on this occasion, di- 
vided. 

1. In the first place, are there any whose con- 
sciences tell them that they have come to the Lord's 
table, without any fitness for it, and have partaken 
of the ordinance, without any interest in it ? that 
they have been influenced by unworthy motives ; 
that they have been destitute of right principles ; 
that they have acted in an irreverent and unchris- 
tian manner ? To such of you, I must declare that 

* Addressed to the congregation of St. George's Church, Edin- 
burgh, after the celebration of the Lord's Supper, 7th Novem. 1830. 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 297 

you have been " guilty of the body and blood of the 
Lord that you have deliberately profaned the me- 
morials of the Saviour's death ; that you have been 
eating and drinking judgment to yourselves — provok- 
ing the displeasure, and incurring the condemnation 
of God. You cannot but be sensible, that the guilt 
which you have thus contracted is of a highly ag- 
gravated nature ; and that every consideration which 
renders the ordinance obligatory, and holy, and en- 
dearing, calls upon you to repent of this " your great 
wickedness." " Repent, therefore, and be convert- 
ed, that your sin may be blotted out." Humble 
yourselves before Him whom you have insulted and 
provoked. Ask of him the forgiveness that you need. 
Have recourse to " the blood of sprinkling" on which 
you have trampled, but which alone can cleanse 
you from iniquity. And let this step be the last of 
that thoughtless and wayward career which you 
have been hitherto running. Let the conviction of 
your guilt arrest you ; and, under its awful im- 
pression, resolve, in the strength of divine grace, 
that you will " go and sin no more ;" that you will 
never again touch the symbols of Christ's sacrifice 
with polluted hands ; that you will henceforth live 
in a state of habitual preparation, and thus be ready 
whenever providence shall call you, to remember 
Christ, at his holy table. May God himself teach 
you to form this resolution, and may he enable you 
to keep it ! 

2. In the second place, are there any who, in 
their communion service, have experienced disap- 

5 



398 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

pointment ; who have sincerely desired, and studi- 
ously endeavoured, to partake worthily of this 
ordinance, and yet have not enjoyed the comfort 
and satisfaction which they expected ? Let me 
entreat such of you not to attribute this to the 
ordinance itself, as if it were not calculated to im- 
part the consolation which you have sought without 
finding it ; not to impute it to any deficiency of 
kindness in Him, after whose favour you have been 
aspiring, though without success ; not to consider 
it as a decisive proof that you have come wholly 
unprepared to eat the Lord's supper, and have 
therefore been guilty of abusing and profaning it. 
I would rather exhort you to reflect, whether you 
may not have been looking for more sensible com- 
munications of divine love than are promised ; 
whether you may not have been waiting for emo- 
tions of rapture, when you should have been con- 
tented with the humbler, though not less valuable, 
attainments of moral influence and peaceful enjoy- 
ment ; whether, imperfect as your service may have 
been, you are not taking exaggerated views of that 
imperfection, and mistaking involuntary error for 
deliberate impiety ; whether some worldly care, or 
some domestic affliction, or some groundless fear, 
may not have intruded itself, and distracted the 
tenor of your thoughts, or lowered the tone of your 
devotion. Reflect whether any of these circum- 
stances may have been the cause of your disappoint- 
ment. And while you suspect the weakness or the 
corruption of your own hearts, and are more and 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 299 

more humbled on that account, do not cease to love 
the ordinance of sacred communion ; do not desist 
from " following on to know the Lord do not 
despair of sooner or later arriving* at " everlasting 
consolation and good hope through grace but let 
your sorrowful experience on this occasion quicken 
you to greater diligence in the ways of religion ; 
let it teach you to cherish less sanguine expecta- 
tions of happiness in this mixed and sinful state of 
being ; let it lead you to exercise a profounder sub- 
mission to the will of your heavenly Father res- 
pecting your joys and your griefs, and to rest, not 
so much upon the frames and feelings of the heart, 
as upon the sincerity of your desires, the fervour of 
your prayers, the unwearied activity of your endea- 
vours to walk as the disciples of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and as the expectants of that heavenly "joy, 
which is unspeakable and full of glory." 

3. In the third place, have any of you good reason 
to believe, that you were guided to the Lord's table 
by pure and upright motives ? Were you anxious to 
acquire the graces that were necessary to qualify 
you for the ordinance ? Did you present your offer- 
ing in faith, and penitence, and love ? And have 
you felt it to be a good and blessed thing for you to 
" draw near unto God ?" And need I remind you of 
your obligation to be thankful to Him in whose 
mercy all this has originated — who prepared the 
feast for you — who invited you to partake of it — 
who made you meet for enjoying it — who spread over 
you " his banner of love" — and enabled you to re- 



300 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

joice in the light of his countenance, and in the riches 
of his grace ? Let your hearts be warmed with senti- 
ments of gratitude for his abundant goodness \ let 
your lips celebrate his praise ; let your conduct 
show the obligations which you feel to devote 
yourselves to his service. But while thus, in one 
sense, you have reason to be elevated by your com- 
munion service, you have reason also, in another 
view, to be lowly, and to "join trembling with your 
mirth." Sincere as you may have been, and suit- 
able as were your principles and dispositions, you 
cannot but acknowledge that much sin and imper- 
fection have attached to your solemn service. How 
cold have been your devotions — how listless your 
attention — how weak and wavering your faith — 
how inadequate your love — how disproportionate 
your hatred of sin — how undetermined your resolu- 
tions and purposes of obedience ! I say how far 
short, in these and other respects, have you come of 
that standard of duty to which you should have 
conformed ! And should not this excite in you 
the sentiments of humility ? Should it not lead 
you to the throne of grace, that you may ask and 
obtain forgiveness ? And should it not make you 
anxious on every future occasion to have the graces 
of the Spirit in livelier and more vigorous exercise ? 
Study, then, to be truly humble under a sense of 
your unworthiness. Neglect not to pray for the 
pardon which your consciences tell you that you 
need. And be stimulated to seek, with greater 
earnestness than ever, that habitual preparation of 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 301 



the heart and of the life which shall fit you for a 
still more acceptable, and a still more useful, and 
still more comfortable, commemoration of the Sa- 
viour's death. It is thus, indeed, that you are to 
walk worthy of the profession you have this day 
made, and of the privilege you have this day en- 
joyed. O my friends, considering all that you have 
seen and done at the table of the Lord, how holy 
should you be in all manner of conversation and of 
conduct ! You never can do too much to testify 
your gratitude and your devotedness to him whom 
you have there remembered. Let it be the great 
business of your life to live to Christ. Live to him 
by relying on his merits, and " glorying in his cross." 
Live to him by keeping his commandments, and 
imitating his example, and submitting to the disci- 
pline of his providence. Live to him by observing 
punctually and devoutly those ordinances, which he 
has instituted for the comfort of your souls, and for 
the improvement of your character. Live to him, 
by cultivating that brotherly affection to one an- 
other, and that unfeigned charity to all mankind, 
which he not only enjoins upon you as his disciples, 
but which he so conspicuously displayed in his own 
life, and by whose sacred impulse he was constrain- 
ed to die that you might live. Live to him by do- 
ing what you can, and by doing it with all your 
might, to promote the knowledge and the influence 
of his religion in the world — to carry abroad the 
glories of his reign over the face of the whole earth 
— and to bring every heart within your reach under 



302 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

the dominion of his grace and power. You 
know, my friends, that when I exhort you thus 
to live to Christ, I exhort you to do what is 
both becoming and necessary in his professed fol- 
lowers. Do not reject my counsel, then, as if 
there were no propriety in its meaning', no justice 
in its application, no importance in its effects. Let 
no temptation prevail upon you to go aside from 
that line of conduct which you have so many mo- 
tives to pursue with patience and perseverance. 
Act at all times worthy of your high, your holy, your 
heavenly " vocation." And, amidst all the trials 
to which your faith and your virtue may be exposed 
in an evil world, think on the communion you 
have enjoyed, and on the love you have remembered, 
and on the vows you have taken, and on the hope 
you have professed, that, with the help of God, you 
may be encouraged to " hold your confidence sted- 
fast unto the end," and be qualified at last to " enter 
into the joy of your Lord." 

4. In the fourth and last place, have you for the 
first time commemorated the death of Christ at a 
communion table ? I congratulate you on this 
public profession of your faith in the Redeemer, in 
his gospel, and in his cross, and I would beseech 
you to persevere in it, and to justify its sincerity, 
in every part of your future conduct. You must 
not think that, having appeared at the Lord's table, 
you have now secured the character of disciples, 
and on the ground of what is past, may conclude 
that all is well with your spiritual interests. No, 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 303 



1117 young- friends ; the character of disciples is to 
be ascertained, not by partaking of this ordinance, 
solemn and important as the service is, but by those 
principles, and by that conduct, which a right ob^ 
servance of it requires in communicants, and which 
it has a direct and powerful tendency to produce 
and to improve. Your conscience will tell you 
whether you were indeed possessed of such princi- 
ples and of such conduct, before you came to the 
Lord's table ; but charitably presuming- that you 
were, it must now be your concern to live as those 
who have given themselves away to God, who be- 
lieve in Christ with the heart, who look for salva- 
tion through the merits of a crucified Redeemer, 
and who, living in this world "as strangers and pil- 
grims," are the expectants of that better and purer 
and happier world which lies beyond it. I would 
not conceal from you the difficulties and dangers 
you will have to encounter in your Christian pro- 
gress. Nor would I have you to conceive your- 
selves at liberty to make, in any case, a com- 
promise with sin, as if it were possible for you 
to " serve two masters." You must expect to meet 
with much opposition ; and that opposition it is ne- 
cessary for you to resist and to overcome. But be 
not cast down : He that is for you is infinitely 
" greater than all that can be against you." He will 
" make his grace sufficient for you, and will perfect 
his strength in your weakness." You are in the 
hands of a compassionate and almighty Saviour. 
Trust in Him, and he will make you "more than con- 



304 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COiMMUNION. 

querors" over all your enemies. He will guide you 
in difficulty ; he will protect you in danger ; he will 
fortify you against temptation ; he will strengthen you 
for duty ; he will comfort you in all your tribulations ; 
he will lead you through the dark 6 6 valley of the sha- 
dow of death and he will bring you in triumph to 
his heavenly kingdom. Encouraged and animated 
by such promises, be stedfast in the faith and obe- 
dience of the gospel. Diligently employ the means 
of grace which you enjoy, by reading the Scriptures, 
attending the public worship of God, keeping holy 
the Sabbath-day, and praying to your Father in hea- 
ven. Avoid the company of the thoughtless, the 
impure, and the profane. And associate with those 
who fear the Lord and keep his commandments, 
and who can assist you, by their counsel and their 
example, in your journey to heaven. Walk under 
the habitual impression that the eye of God is upon 
you, to witness all your thoughts, and all your 
words, and all your ways. Frequently recal to 
your recollection the service of this day ; and when 
tempted to sin, remember your solemn vows, and 
keep yourselves from transgression. And let every 
other consideration be enforced by the prospect of 
death and judgment. Ere long you must die, and 
give an account to God. Kay, you may be called 
soon and suddenly to give in that account. And, 
this being the case, O how vigilant, and how active, 
should you be in the work that is given you, and 
that you have undertaken, to do ! Youth and health 
and prosperity, are no security against an unex- 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 305 

pected summons to depart. " Thou fool, this night 
thy soul may be required of thee." " Be ye al- 
ways ready, for ye know neither the day nor the 
hour when the Son of man cometh. And what I 
say unto you, I say unto all, watch." " Now unto 
Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to 
present you faultless before the presence of his glory 
with exceeding joy ; to the only wise God our Sa- 
viour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, 
both now and ever. Amen." 



x 



306 



SERMON XIV. 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 
MATTHEW vii. 7- 

" Ask, and it shall be given you," 8fc. 

In a former discourse on these words, we propos- 
ed to consider the encouragements we have to 
engage in the duty of prayer. And the first of 
these encouragements to which we directed your at- 
tention was, that the God to whom we pray is as 
willing and ready, as he is able, to bestow upon us 
the blessings that we need and ask. This proposi- 
tion we proved and illustrated by observing, first, 
that God's commanding us to pray, proceeds on the 
supposition that he will not withhold what we 
ask according to his injunction : Secondly, that he 
gives explicit declarations and assurances of that 
willingness which his commandment warranted us 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



307 



to infer ; and that these declarations and assuran- 
ces are of such a nature as to remove every doubt 
or apprehension we might have entertained on the 
subject : Thirdly, that the various representations of 
himself, which he has given in the scriptures, afford 
the most powerful arguments in favour of the same 
conclusion — as for instance, when he represents him- 
self as seated on a throne of grace, and in the charac- 
ter of our heavenly Father : And fourthly, that he 
has given his own Son for our salvation ; and this 
unspeakable gift is a pledge and earnest that every 
other gift which is necessary for us will be confer- 
red; agreeably to the reasoning of the apostle, " He 
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us 
all things." 

II. We now proceed to consider, as another en- 
couragement to pray, that Jesus Christ is our High 
Priest, and Advocate with the Father. 

We should not, and if our minds are properly 
affected, we cannot, approach God without convic- 
tions of guilt and unworthiness. It is unchangeably 
true that his nature and character are distinguished 
by infinite holiness. It is no less true, that we 
are polluted with that moral demerit by which, as 
an infinitely holy being, he must be offended. And 
while these impressions ought at all times to have a 
place in our minds, especially must they prevail 
when we go into his presence, that we may solicit 
him for benefits. It must then occur to us not on- 
ly that we do not deserve them, but that were we 



308 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 

to be treated according" to our desert, wrath, and 
not mercy, would be our portion. 

It is true, indeed, that if we are reconciled to 
God by faith in the righteousness of Christ, and 
can look up to him in the spirit of adoption as our 
heavenly Father, such apprehensions need not dis- 
tress or overwhelm us. Still, however, our being 
justified does not prevent us from sinning. Every 
sin we commit may, on that account, be considered 
as so much the more aggravated, and so much the 
more displeasing, in the sight of God. And occa- 
sionally there may be such a deep consciousness of 
guilt — our souls may be so burdened with a sense 
of iniquity — we may be so much cast down by 
the number and heinousness of those transgressions 
which set themselves in array against us — that we 
cannot look up to Him against whom we have done 
evil, and may feel as if it would be adding to our 
demerit were we to call upon his name, and sup- 
plicate any blessing from his hand. 

Now, in these circumstances, our great, our 
only, refuge is in the mediation of Jesus Christ, 
which is sufficient to remove every ground of fear, 
and to give us confidence in the petitions we 
prefer. His sacrifice is adequate to the expiation 
of ail our guilt. It was appointed — it has been of- 
ferred up — it has been fully accepted — for this very 
purpose. And God's perfections are honoured, and 
his glory promoted, by the forgiveness of all who 
are interested in its atoning virtue. Nor is it for- 
giveness alone that it has obtained for us. By re- 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



309 



moving* the barrier which stood between God 
and us, it allows his loving-kindness to flow in up- 
on us freely and fully ; and by conciliating that 
loving-kindness, there is secured for us every bless- 
ing which the divine bounty can be deemed cap- 
able of bestowing upon those who are the objects 
of it — every blessing that is essential to the sal- 
vation and happiness of the sinful creatures on 
whose account the sacrifice of Christ was insti- 
tuted. Whether we consider the value of Christ's 
sacrifice as directly meriting what we need, or 
whether we consider it as making way for the ex- 
ercise of God's love, in communicating what we 
need, the effect is equally precious, certain, and ex- 
tensive. The value of the sacrifice is infinite, and 
will merit every thing — the love of God to which 
it gives unrestrained operation, is also infinite, and 
will communicate every thing, that is implied in the 
largest and most liberal sense of the term, " redemp- 
tion." But it is upon the worth and efficacy of this 
very sacrifice that we are called to depend, when 
we ask any thing of God. Depending upon it, we 
are assured that, for its sake, we shall receive. 
And as it avails to the cancelling of all sin, and to 
the restoration of the favour which we had lost, and 
to the attainment of whatever is requisite for our 
salvation, we have no reason to be afraid that any 
one boon will be refused, which it is competent for 
us to ask, or necessary for us to possess. 

This argument becomes still more powerful, 
when we recollect the nature and consequences of 



310 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 



our union with Christ. If we have truly believed 
in him, we are members of his mystical body, and 
are therefore partakers of all that belongs to him as 
our spiritual head. He has secured all the bless- 
ings that are necessary for his people. They are 
treasured up in him, as his purchased and ascer- 
tained property, for their welfare. And if we are his 
people by that faith which links us to him, these 
blessings must be ours, in title or in possession, as 
certainly as they are his. He has already won them 
by his vicarious, perfect, and accepted obedience. 
He won them, not for himself, but for those whom 
he came to redeem. And the moment that faith 
makes us one with him, we acquire a covenant- 
right to them, which we are warranted to plead at 
the throne of grace ; and pleading this, our plea 
must be successful, not merely because God is good 
and merciful, but also because he is righteous and 
true. This doctrine is asserted by the apostle John 
when he says, " If we confess our sins, God is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The faith- 
fulness and the justice of God are here appealed to 
as guaranteeing pardon and purification to those 
who return to him in his appointed way. And in 
like manner, and for the same reason, when we 
ask any thing of him as believers in Christ, we ask 
what Christ has already secured a title to, and what 
God therefore is pledged, by solemn engagement, 
to grant for Christ's sake. To be fearful, then, 
that we shall not receive, is not only to distrust the 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



311 



divine compassion, but moreover, to impeach the 
divine rectitude. And thus those very attributes 
which, when contemplated in reference merely to 
our guiltiness, were apt to drive us away from 
God's presence, and to repress every petition for 
good, by extinguishing every hope of its being an- 
swered, become our most potent encouragement to 
pray, in consequence of the satisfaction which has 
been rendered to them by the finished work of 
Christ, and of the claim which has been thereby es- 
tablished upon them, to fulfil whatever was pro- 
mised to our substitute and surety. In this view, 
we may ask with freedom ; and we may ask with 
the unwavering confidence that we shall receive. 

There is another important circumstance con- 
nected with the one now mentioned, which de- 
serves consideration. The oblation which Christ 
presented on behalf of his people, has secured for 
them a title to all the blessings of salvation ; but as 
our great High Priest, he has not only offered up 
that oblation, and procured its acceptance — he has 
also taken it with him into " the holiest of all," and 
there he " ever liveth to make intercession for us." 
What can be more consolatory ; what can be more 
animating, than the persuasion, that we have " an 
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righte- 
ous, who is the propitiation for our sins ? " Were 
we applying to an earthly sovereign for any favour, 
we should naturally feel ourselves encouraged to 
make the application, in spite of any obstacles arising 
from the obscurity of our situation, or even the im- 



3l c 2 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 

perfections of our character, by knowing that we 
had a friend in the royal presence to urge our suit, 
whose skill and influence would all be employed in 
our behalf, and exerted to ensure success. And 
surely we must experience the power of this mo- 
tive when it is furnished by the intercession of 
Christ, who presents our petitions at the Father's 
right hand, and enforces them with all the affection 
and with all the weight of a Redeemer, whose love 
and whose merit and whose wisdom are unbounded. 
He not only pleads with a Being who is already 
disposed to pity and to help us, but with a Being 
who has been propitiated by a sacrifice of his own 
appointment. He rests his plea upon the sacred- 
ness of a covenant, whose conditions he has amply 
fulfilled, as the representative of his people. He 
asks for blessings which are already his, by the right 
of purchase or of conquest. And, therefore, his 
prayer must be prevalent, inasmuch as there are 
holiness and mercy and faithfulness in God, His 
very admission into God's heavenly presence with 
the blood of atonement, and as a reward for his me- 
diatorial labours, is a complete security for his suc- 
cess, because it demonstrates that God was well- 
pleased with what he had done and suffered for 
sinners ; and, looking to every thing connected 
with his nature and his work, we cannot suppose 
that he will ever forfeit that divine acceptance 
which he has gained at such a costly price, and 
which has been made over to him in such a solemn 

manner. So that when we rely upon the efficacy 

1 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



313 



of his intercession, we rely upon that which pos- 
sesses infinite worth, and must necessarily be avail- 
able to every thing- which involves the well-being 
of those for whom it is made. And as we are as- 
sured that he makes intercession for us who believe 
in his name ; that he perfumes our supplications 
with the incense of his infinite merit ; that he pre- 
sents and urges them as his own ; and that God is 
glorified by granting his requests — we may banish 
all doubt and hesitation from our minds, and ask 
with the firm conviction that we shall not ask in 
vain. " Seeing that we have a great High Priest 
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of 
God, let us come boldly unto the throne of 
grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to 
help in time of need." The intercession of such a 
Saviour, in such circumstances, is fitted to give us, 
and if we understand it aright, and have a believing 
regard to it, it will give us, a humble, holy, boldness 
in the exercise of prayer. It will relieve us from 
all the embarrassments which may be occasioned by 
a sense of our unworthiness. It will encourage us 
to make known to God the desires of our hearts, 
not for any one thing, but for every thing, that we 
need, as sinful, dependent, immortal creatures. It 
was to save us that Christ gave himself an offering 
and a sacrifice unto God. It is in prosecution of 
the same great end that he has gone with that sa- 
crifice to appear in the presence of God for us. It 
is for nothing less that he continues there, dis- 
charging the office of an Advocate with the Father. 



314 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 



And, therefore, we may petition for all the benefits 
that are comprehended in the term " salvation," in 
the full persuasion that not one of them will be 
withheld. 

Let this then, my believing- friends, be your en- 
couragement in prayer, that Christ is your propi- 
tiation and your intercessor. Whatever may occur 
to cast down and disquiet your soul, still trust in 
God, who hears Christ always, and will not, cannot, 
reject his suit, or deny him what he asks. And 
" whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in his name, 
he will give it you ;" for with him you are identified, 
as it were, in the scheme of God's redeeming 
mercy. I cannot say to you, that hitherto ye have 
asked nothing in Christ's name. For all along, it 
must be presumed, that you have been asking in 
that name, and in no other. But if you have 
doubted or desponded when supplicating at God's 
throne, we cannot but fear that you have for- 
gotten, or have not sufficiently realized and felt, the 
efficacy of Christ's name. In the mere name, indeed, 
in the word itself, there is no such efficacy, no such vir- 
tue, no such charm, that the sounding of it, or the 
thinking on it, should bring you any blessing. Ask- 
ing in his name, means the exercise of a conscious 
reliance upon his mediation. When you pray, let 
that reliance be in full and lively operation. Let 
this be the case in every season of devotion. More 
especially let it be present with you when convic- 
tions of guilt and sinfulness rise up to becloud your 
views of heaven, and to make you fearful in the 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



315 



hour of prayer. In such exigencies, look stedfastly 
to Christ, meditate deeply on him, confide unhesi- 
tatingly in him, as that Saviour who presented an 
acceptable offering, and who, on the ground of that of- 
fering, makes continual and prevalent intercession in 
your behalf. And take courage to ask to the full 
extent of your necessities. " Ask in faith, nothing 
wavering." " Ask, and ye shall receive, that your 
joy may be full." 

III. In the third place, we may mention as an- 
other encouragement to pray, that the Holy Spirit is 
promised to assist us in this sacred duty. 

There is no duty whatever, which of ourselves 
we are able to discharge aright. And this melan- 
choly fact holds true with regard to prayer, fully as 
much as it does with regard to any other. Prayer 
is an exercise so purely spiritual ; it requires such 
an effort of the attention, such a concentration of 
the affections, such a freedom from external inter- 
ference, such a minute acquaintance with our own 
hearts and characters and circumstances, and such a 
constant and steady contemplation of the peculiar 
objects of faith, — that at all times we engage in it 
with painful imperfection, and often fail in its most 
essential and interesting properties. And a sense 
of this naturally tends to increase the evil, and even 
to make us go seldomer, and with less willingness, 
and with less comfort and advantage, to the throne 
of grace. 

Now, to counteract such feelings, and to prevent 
such mischief, let it be remembered with gratitude 



316 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER, 14s 



and delight, that we have the promise of divine aid, 
suited to the nature and the necessities of the case. 
We have the promise of the Holy Spirit for this 
purpose. The Holy Spirit, indeed, is promised to 
direct and to aid us in the performance of all our 
Christian duties ; and without his blessed and 
powerful influences, we could not advance one step 
in the path of piety and righteousness ; we could 
neither think a good thought, nor speak a good 
word, nor do a good work. But he is especially pro- 
mised as the ' 6 Spirit of grace and of supplications." 
He is represented as sustaining this character, and 
in this character as imparted to believers, and dwell- 
ing in them. Having, therefore, the promise of a 
divine agency to assist them in their devotions, they 
may trust they will be prevented from "asking 
amiss," and consequently asking unsuccessfully. 

I need not detail to you the various particulars 
as to which this assistance is vouchsafed. Whether 
it be the difficulty of distinctly realizing Him to 
whom you address yourselves in prayer — or wheth- 
er it be an inadequate knowledge of the blessings 
you need, or an inadequate impression of their 
value — whether it be a weakness in your faith, or 
a languor in you affections — whether it be a dis- 
traction of the mind by worldly cares, and unholy 
associations — whatever it be which might enfeeble, 
or desecrate, or nullify your applications to God 
for the blessings you need, the remedy is to be 
found in the influences of his Spirit, who is sent for 
this very purpose, that he may teach and enable 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



317 



you to pray — that he may incline your hearts to 
this exercise — that he may put you into a proper 
frame of mind for it — that he may sanctify you for 
engaging in it in a suitable manner— that he may 
guard you against the intrusion of those vain or 
unhallowed imaginations by which it would be pol- 
luted — that he may give you a lively conviction of 
the importance and urgency of your wants — that 
he may suggest to you such petitions as correspond 
with all the varieties of your condition — that he 
may keep your view fixed singly and intensely on 
the Being to whose benignity you appeal — and that 
he may direct all your aspirations through that me- 
dium by which alone the sinful creature can hold 
intercourse with the Holy Creator — the merit and 
intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these 
benefits — and every thing else that is requisite for 
asking so as to receive, are involved in the gift of 
the Holy Spirit. And he who is privileged to pray 
"with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit," need 
not be dejected by the consideration of that ignor- 
ance, and weakness, and much imperfection with 
which he is naturally beset. The Spirit will guide 
and strengthen and sanctify him in this service as 
in every other ; and yielding to his gracious influ- 
ences, he will find it true in respect to prayer, that 
" where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 

There is a very striking and significant statement 
on this part of our subject in Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans, (viii. 26.) " Likewise the Spirit also helpeth 
our infirmities ; for we know not what we should 



318 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 



pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh 
intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be 
uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts know- 
eth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he mak- 
eth intercession for the saints according to the will 
of God." The Spirit is our great auxiliary in the 
divine life. He helps us amidst all the infirmities 
that cleave to our nature, or that arise from our 
situation : and as our infirmities attach to the duty 
of prayer, so he helps us in the performance of that 
duty. We are so deficient when left to our own 
resources, that we know not what we should pray 
for, and we know not how to pray for it as we ought. 
But here the Spirit comes to our aid ; and so 
adequate and so efficient is the aid which he im- 
parts — so much does he inspire us with devotional 
sentiment, and so much does he dictate, as it were, 
the very petitions which we are to offer up, and so 
much does he take the management of our under- 
standings and our hearts at the throne of grace, 
and so much are the outpowerings of our souls 
there to be traced and ascribed to his operation, 
that he is represented as executing' a prerogative 
similar to that which belongs to Christ, and as 
" making intercession for us with groanings which 
cannot be uttered" — exciting us to long, with inex- 
pressible ardour, after the blessings of that redemp- 
tion, to which he seals us, and rendering our pray- 
ers for these, fervent, appropriate, and effectual, ac- 
ceptable to that God who knows what are the 
thoughts and desires of his saints, and who regards 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



819 



them as inwrought by his own Spirit, whose sug- 
gestions they are, and who will answer them in 
mercy as being all in conformity to the purpose 
which he has formed concerning the deliverance 
and the happiness of his people. 

What rich encouragement does this afford you, 
my Christian brethren, in the exercise of prayer ! 
Not only does God to whom you pray invite you 
into his presence, and assure you of his willingness 
to " grant you according to your own heart, and 
to fulfil all your counsel but you are taught to 
look to Christ, his anointed Son, as having purchas- 
ed for you the blessings that you need and ask, and 
as, on that ground, interceding, powerfully and pre- 
valently, that you may receive them in full and 
suitable measure. And then the Holy Spirit is 
provided and sent forth, that the divine work may 
be perfected — that you may be instructed in the 
proper enjoyment of this distinguished privilege — 
in the right performance of this sacred duty — in 
the efficient use of this important means of grace — 
and that you may be enabled so to order your de- 
sires, and so to present your supplications, as that 
nothing shall be wanting to secure your attainment 
of all that is needful for you in time and eternity. 
Let all your apprehensions arising from conscious 
infirmity, be dissipated by this consideration. Let 
your souls be enlarged and stimulated by it, that 
you may always pray, and not faint. And let it 
come home to you with double power, when you 
remember that the Holy Spirit is promised to them 



320 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 



that ask him — that his influences as " the spirit of 
supplications" will be given in answer to your hum- 
ble and believing* requests — and that the more you 
depend upon his aid, and the more importunate and 
persevering you are in imploring it, the more liber- 
al will be its supply, the greater freedom will you 
have in seeking God's face and favour ; and the 
more plentifully will he pour down upon you the 
bounties of his grace, and the joys of his salva- 
tion. 

IV. Finally, the happy experience of believers 
in all ages, furnishes another encouragement to 
prayer. 

When you are exhorted to pray, it is no new duty 
which you are called to perform. It is not a duty 
whose importance and usefulness have yet to be 
brought to the test of experiment. It is not an 
exercise whose tendency to comfort and improve 
those who engage in it, is, in any measure, specula- 
tive or not fully proved. The commandment of 
God to pray — the privilege of his people to pray 
— are as ancient as the church itself. The com- 
mandment has been obeyed, the privilege has been 
possessed, ever since there was a converted sinner 
upon the earth. And the uniform testimony has 
been, that in the "keeping of that commandment 
there is a great reward," and that from the use of that 
privilege, all comfort and edification are derived. 
Nay my friends, if it has been given "to you in the 
behalf of Christ Jesus to believe in his name," you 
also must know what it is to pray, and I may 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 



321 



appeal to your own experience, if you have not 
found it to be a good and a profitable thing" to draw- 
near unto God. And if that be the case — if you 
have found God when you sought him — if blessings 
have descended upon you when you supplicated 
them — if frequenting the throne of grace, you can 
say that hitherto the Lord hath helped you, may 
not you expect that, continuing to frequent that 
throne, goodness and mercy will continue to follow 
you till you take up your abode in the house of the 
Lord above ? May you not expect this, even though 
you cannot distinctly trace a connexion between the 
particular tokens of kindness you have received and 
the petitions by which they were preceded. From 
the scheme of Christianity — from the promises of the 
gospel — from what has actually happened in the his- 
tory of your Christian life, you must know and feel 
that the instrumentality of prayer has been so blessed 
as to procure for you the spiritual good that you en- 
joy : and this is enough to teach you that, by per- 
severing in the use of the same instrumentality, 
similar good, in a greater or in a less degree, will 
come into your lot from the hand of Him who has 
heretofore heard your supplications and answered 
them in mercy. And if you be placed in more 
difficult, more dangerous, more needful, more try- 
ing circumstances than you were ever placed in 
before, and need a proportional encouragement, 
you may surely find it in the case of multitudes, 
who have come through far greater tribulations 

y 



WM ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 

and been delivered from far heavier burdens, 
than any that you are doomed to suffer or to 
bear ; who clung the closer to the footstool and 
the throne of mercy, the more that they were 
tempted and afflicted ; who never ceased to " cry 
to Him who was able to save them ;" who were thus 
rescued out of all their fears and troubles, and have 
now exchanged the wailings of distress, and the en- 
treaty for deliverance, for the unceasing accents of 
gratitude and victory and joy. On looking around 
you among your brethren in Christ, it is not un- 
likely that you may discover some who can tell 
you, and tell you truly, that they have been visit- 
ed with " fears within and fightings without" — ■ 
that they have been made to " walk in darkness and 
had no light" — that many and grievous and insup- 
portable were the evils which they had to endure 
—-but that they did not despair — that they cried 
mightily "to the Lord their God — that he heard 
them, and shed the light of life and consolation up- 
on their souls, and guided their feet into the way 
of peace, and made them to sing of the mercy 
which they had implored, — and that they are now 
living and blessed monuments of the compassion 
of the God of prayer, and of the wisdom and the 
advantage of seeking Him in that character amidst 
every scene of adversity and alarm. And, if you 
know not within the limits of your Christian broth- 
erhood, any such example as that which I have 
now supposed, you may look into the Bible and 



SER. 14. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYERo 



323 



there you will find it, set before you in the most 
interesting light, and affording the strongest possible 
encouragement to engage and persevere in prayer. 
Throughout the whole of the Book of Psalms there 
is a practical demonstration of this : and especially 
in the 116th, at the beginning, where the pious King 
of Israel testifies to the efficacy of prayer, in terms 
the most affecting and pathetic. 44 I love the Lord 
because he hath heard my voice and my supplica- 
tions. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, 
therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. 
The sorrows of death compassed me ; and the fears 
of hell got hold upon me : I found trouble and 
sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the 
Lord ; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous : yea our God 
is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I 
was brought low and he helped me. Return unto 
thy rest, O my soul ; for the Lord hath dealt bounti- 
fully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul 
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from 
falling." 

Be persuaded, then, to follow in the footsteps of 
" the saints and the excellent of the earth" who have 
gone before you. Imitate their example : be en- 
couraged by their experience : Let the success which 
accompanied their prayers and supplications deter- 
mine you to pray and to supplicate without ceasing, 
whatever you need from Him whose 44 ear is never 
heavy that it cannot hear, and whose hand is never 



324 ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. SER. 14. 

shortened that it cannot save." Ask and it shall be 
given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it 
shall be opened unto you ; for every one that asketh, 
receiveth, and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him 
that knocketh, it shall be opened." 



325 



SERMON XV. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 

JAMES V. 13. 
" Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray:' 

I need not tell you, my friends, that you are all 
liable to affliction. You can scarcely have lived so 
long in the world as the youngest of you have 
done, without suffering it in some of its various 
forms. At this very moment, perhaps, I speak to 
not a few who are under its actual pressure. At 
any rate, there are many in the circle of your ac- 
quaintance, or in the range of your neighbourhood, 
whom you know to be visited with distress in their 
own persons, or in those of their families and their 
friends, in their minds, or in their bodies, or in 
their outward condition. In all this you see an am- 
ple demonstration of the saying that " man is born 
to trouble as the sparks fly upward." And from it 



326 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



you should learn that, though your " cup may now 
be running over," and your " mountain standing 
strong," it will not be so always — that the days of 
adversity will assuredly come, and that these days 
may be longer, and darker, and more stormy, than 
you are at present willing to anticipate, 

Now, in such circumstances, what does it become 
you to do ? The apostle tells you in the words of my 
text; " Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray." 
Here we are taught that devotion is the true and 
unfailing refuge of the mourner — that our comfort 
in the midst of sorrow is to be found in the doc- 
trines and the exercises of religion — that whatever 
be the nature of our distresses, we should have re- 
course to God, as the Father of mercies, the foun- 
tain of consolation, the rock of our deliverance 
and our safety. 

No doubt, in the time of trouble, prescriptions 
very different from these will be freely tendered to 
you, and tendered with some appearance of wisdom, 
and with liberal professions of friendship. 

The philosopher will tell you that afflictions are 
the lot of humanity — that they are absolutely ine- 
vitable — that your grief on account of them is use- 
less and unavailing — and that therefore you should 
try to become indifferent to them, and submit quiet- 
ly to your fate, whatever it may be : a lesson which 
it is impossible to reduce to practice while the con- 
stitution of our nature continues what it. is, and 
which, were it practicable, would only serve, by 
deadening our sensibilities, to deprive us of all that 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



327 



is amiable, and to exhibit a case in which the reme- 
dy is incalculably worse than the disease. The 
man who could remain in stoical and deathlike apa- 
thy, amidst all the ills and calamities of life, is far 
less an object of envy, than the man who weeps at 
every trifling injury, and allows himself to be over- 
whelmed by disappointment and pain. The latter 
is only weak ; and with his weakness, may have 
much that is interesting ; but the former, in the 
sternness of that virtue which he has assumed, has 
lost every gracious attribute of the heart, and made 
himself as incapable of relishing the joys, as he has 
made himself proof against the sorrows, with which 
his lot is chequered. 

The mere moralist will talk to you of the utility 
of those trials to which you are subjected ; of the 
duty, the propriety, and the dignity of patient en- 
durance ; of the examples of suffering and of magna- 
nimity with which the history of mankind abounds ; 
of the necessity that exists for summoning up the 
energies of your minds to meet the exigencies of 
your case ; and of the advantage you will derive, 
and the reputation you will acquire, by rising supe- 
rior to all that is harassing in your experience and 
gloomy in your prospects. And, doubtless, these 
considerations are not altogether inapplicable or 
useless. But yet, of themselves, they are far from 
being sufficient for the purpose for which they are 
professedly set before you. They rather point out 
what should prevent you from murmuring, than 
what will inspire you with comfort and resigna* 



328 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



tion ; they show you the temper and character to 
which you should aspire, rather than furnish you 
with the means and the motives that may secure 
their attainment : they do not carry you either to 
the source of affliction or to the source of consola- 
tion ; they provide you only with what may heal 
your wounds slightly and superficially, not with 
what will cure them radically and effectually : they 
suggest to you some adventitious views which may 
help to mitigate your disquietudes, instead of urging 
upon you the principle whose power is adequate to 
subdue these disquietudes, if it do not remove 
their cause : in short, they are marked by this capi- 
tal defect, that while they deal but very partially 
both with our affections and our destiny, they make 
no provision for our inherent weakness, and fail of 
directing us to that divine aid, without which all 
our knowledge, and all our meditations, and all 
our efforts, are fruitless and inefficient. 

Besides these, there is a class of comforters from 
whom better counsel might be expected, but from 
whom no better counsel, or rather counsel not so 
good, is obtained. The persons to whom I refer 
are nominally Christians. They profess to rest 
their own hopes of salvation on the gospel, and to 
think it essential to the salvation of others. And 
they would be indignant were we to accuse them 
of any disrespect for the Scriptures, or for the 
scheme of mercy which the Scriptures unfold. But 
yet, the practical system upon which they act is as 
worldly as if they had no acquaintance with Chris- 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



329 



tianity or no belief in it. And if you follow their 
direction when you are afflicted, you will find that 
sacred views and sacred employments are almost 
wholly interdicted, and that if you are to have*any 
thing to do with these, the impression which they 
are to be permitted to make, and the influence 
which they are to be permitted to maintain, must 
be as feeble and as slight as possible. According- 
ly, it is no uncommon thing for them to tell you, 
that, in such circumstances, you should beware of 
dwelling much, or of dwelling seriously, on what 
has befallen you ; that religious books are a great 
deal too dispiriting and dismal for your perusal ; 
that it is only to increase your malady when you 
seek for the conversation of a clergyman, or of a 
pious friend ; and that nothing can be worse for 
you than to seclude yourselves from gay company, 
and to spend any portion of your time in retire- 
ment or in solitude. One would be apt to sup- 
pose that they would recommend the perusal of 
your Bible ; but no, they would much rather 
put into your hands the news or the novel of 
the day. Surely they might be expected to sug- 
gest attendance on public ordinances ; and yet, 
though they may not be so bold as to condemn it, 
they will be much more urgent that you should go 
to the theatre than to the church. And instead of 
the offices of private and domestic piety, they do 
not hesitate to substitute such miserable expedients 
as the card-table and the midnight assembly. In 
short, their only object being to dissipate your me- 



330 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



lancholy, and to restore your spirits to their wont- 
ed tone, and to bring- you back to the enjoyment of 
life, as they call it, they would have you to give 
yourselves up without reserve to all the entertain- 
ments within your reach ; to frequent the haunts of 
levity and mirth ; to associate with those whose pur- 
suits, and whose very countenances, are an antidote 
to sadness ; to force the laugh which refuses to 
come spontaneously ; and, in fine, to engage in all 
that stands most directly opposed to solemnity of 
feeling and seriousness of occupation. 

I know not, my friends, if, on any supposition, 
such counsels are to be considered as wise or ap- 
propriate. Were I a mere worldling, a very infi- 
del, — yet had I a particle of the best susceptibili- 
ties of my nature left within me, and especially 
had my kind affections been in the least degree cul- 
tivated and refined, could I tolerate the advice 
which bade me forget the dear friend, the beloved 
parent, or the darling child whom I had just con- 
signed to the grave, by plunging into the vanities 
and pleasures of fashionable life ? And if there be 
truth in religion ; if the Bible be a revelation from 
God ; if the doctrines which it teaches, and the 
prospects which it sets before us, be realities of in- 
finite and eternal moment, as many of those, to 
whom we refer, profess to believe, and would deem 
it foul scorn to be suspected of doubting or deny- 
ing, — then surely, and beyond all controversy, it is 
at once guilt and madness that would either give 
or take the admonition to bury all our sorrows in 



SER. 1.5. PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 331 



the thoughtlessness, the dissipation, and the frivo- 
lous amusements of a vain and ungodly world. 

But while we protest and warn you against such 
unsound monitors — such miserable comforters as 
those of whom we have been speaking, we would sup- 
ply their place with the apostle, who, guided by the 
Spirit of wisdom, says, " Is any among you afflict- 
ed ? let him pray." And when the apostle holds 
this language, he is not to be understood as teach- 
ing that the mere act of prayer is sufficient to an- 
swer the purpose which he has in view ; or that 
this purpose can be answered by the most conscien- 
tious and persevering discharge of that important 
duty. There are various methods by which your 
afflictions may be removed or alleviated — various 
methods by which you may be rescued from them, 
or by which you may be supported under them, and 
by which you may be enabled to feel and to act 
worthily with respect to them. These are either 
dictated by the word of God or suggested by the 
arrangements of his providence ; and it is right and 
necessary that they should be brought into opera- 
tion, and employed with as much skill and energy 
as we can command. Prayer, however, is peculiarly 
suitable, and deserving of particular notice. It is 
not only in itself, and, by its own independent fit- 
ness, becoming, and useful, and obligatory in the 
season of distress, but it is requisite as an accom- 
paniment to all the other exercises in which we 
then engage, and to all the other means which we 
then bring into action — requisite to give them their 



332 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



proper tone and character, and to procure that bless- 
ing* from above, by which alone they can be made 
effectual. Prayer, indeed, is a duty in which we 
should be habitually occupied, according" to the ex- 
press commandment of God, and agreeably to the 
place which he has assigned it among the duties of 
personal Christianity. But, while we should be 
habitually occupied in it, there are times and cir- 
cumstances in which it should be resorted to with 
more than ordinary zeal. And it is a matter of 
reason, as well as of devout feeling, that, when we 
are afflicted, we stand more in need of it, and should 
therefore be given to it with more frequency and 
with more fervour. We are required by the voice 
of divine authority, to " call upon the Lord in the 
day of trouble, that he may deliver us, and that we 
may glorify him/ 9 His people have, in every age, 
recognised it to be no less a privilege than a 
duty to obey this precept ; and, in crying to him 
" from the depths," they have often found comfort 
and salvation. Our Saviour himself has giren us 
an example of it, for, in his hour of trial and suffer- 
ing, he " offered up prayers and supplications to 
Him who was able to save him from death and, 
" being in agony, he prayed the more earnestly," — 
and he was " heard in that he feared." And, in- 
deed, my friends, what fitter, what kinder, exhorta- 
tion can we give you, when you are afflicted, than 
that you should bow down at the throne of grace, and 
pour out before Him who sitteth upon it, the sorrows, 
and the desires, and the petitions of your hearts ; 



SER. 15. PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



333 



that you should, in this manner, and on such occa- 
sions, hold communion with your heavenly Father, 
and apply for those communications which corres- 
pond with the nature of your situation and the ex- 
tent of your necessities ; that your views should be 
directed, and your prayers addressed, to Him from 
whom your afflictions proceed, or under whom they 
are permitted to befal you, who both can and will 
remove them, according to your entreaty, if he see 
it to be for your real good — who, at all events, can 
cheer and uphold you while you groan beneath 
their burden — who can overrule and bless them for 
promoting your spiritual improvement and your 
eternal well-being — and who can make them all 
issue in your advancement to that ' \ crown of right- 
eousness and glory which fadeth not away." 

It is of importance, however, that you be not on- 
ly convinced of the propriety and the benefit of 
praying to God when you are afflicted, but that 
you also attend to the leading characteristics of the 
prayer which you then prefer, that you may be at 
once persuaded to engage in the exercise, and to 
engage in it acceptably and successfully. With this 
view, 

1. I remark in the first place, that it may be the 
prayer of nature. "The hearer of prayer" is the 
God of nature. He has implanted in you certain 
instinctive tendencies which it is lawful to gratify, 
when this is not done in opposition to the express 
intimations of his will, or by means of which he 
disapproves. And one of the most powerful of 



334? PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. SER. 15. 

these instincts, is the tendency to escape from dan* 
ger and from misery of every kind. From every 
calamity then, which befals, or which threatens you, 
you are permitted, and you are bound, to seek de- 
liverance. This is what our Saviour did. He suf- 
fered no farther and no longer than was consistent 
with the work which he had undertaken to per- 
form. And, even when he could not fail to know 
that all which he was doomed to endure was neces- 
sary for our redemption, yet he yielded to the im- 
pulse of natural feeling, and in the exceeding sor- 
rowfulness of his soul, offered up this memorable 
petition, " Father, save me from this hour — if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me." You have 
the authority of his example, therefore, for asking 
the removal of your afflictions. It becomes you to 
use every proper means of averting the evils which 
menace you, and of terminating the evils which 
have already come upon you. But forget not also 
to pray to this effect. Pray that the God of mercy 
and of power may be pleased to take away all that 
pains, and all that harasses you. Pray that he may 
direct you to those measures which are best calcu- 
lated to accomplish your relief, and that he would 
bless them for that end. And, pray with all the 
earnestness and ardour which may be suggested by 
the poignancy, and the extent and the duration of 
your sufferings. 

2. But, secondly, your prayer must be the prayer 
of resignation. Our Saviour had no sooner prayed 
"If it be possible let this cup pass from me," than 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



835 



he added, " Nevertheless, not as I will but as thou 
wilt." Resignation was the habit of his mind : and 
in the hour of his deepest anguish, this virtue had 
its perfect work. He knew that all things were well 
ordered. He entertained not a wish, nor a thought, 
at variance with the divine appointments. And at 
the very moment that he was imploring exemption 
from suffering, with a fervour which demonstrates 
how unspeakably great that suffering was, at that 
moment his supplication was qualified by the feel- 
ing and expression of unreserved acquiesence in the 
will of God. Three several times did he lift up this 
voice of supplication, but as often did he resign 
himself to the good pleasure of his heavenly Father. 
"If it be possible let this cup pass from me : yet 
not my will but thine be done." Such is the spirit, 
and such is the conduct, which should distinguish 
us when we pray to God in the midst of our afflic- 
tions. We should recollect that these afflictions 
are the discipline of his providence ; that they are 
sent to us, or continued with us, in the exer- 
cise not merely of sovereign power, but of un- 
erring wisdom, of tender mercy, of unchangeable 
faithfulness ; that they are more or less connected 
with our highest interests in time and in eternity ; 
and that however difficult we may find it to bear 
them, yet if we bear them with patience and sub- 
mission, they will prove in the end to be blessings 
far richer and more important than the health, the 
uninterrupted prosperity, the unmingled enjoyment 
on which we are accustomed to set so much value, 



336 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



Recollecting these things, resignation, amidst our 
most painful privations, and our keenest sorrows, 
must be deemed equally rational and dutiful. And 
not one wish should be conceived by us, nor one 
petition be presented by us for deliverance from 
the chastening rod, which is not modified by the 
sentiment, and accompanied by the language that 
imparted such a moral charm to our Lord's prayer 
of agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Our afflic- 
tions may be numerous, and poignant, and protract- 
ed : we may be racked with pain, or we may be 
pining away under the power of a lingering disease : 
we may be subjected to all the hardships, and all 
the scorn of unlooked for poverty : we may be la- 
menting the misrepresentation, and reproach, and 
calumny by which our good name has been obscur- 
ed or blasted : we may be bending in painful sus- 
pense over the sick-bed of one whose life is dear 
to us as our own, and trembling lest every coming 
moment should tear from us the object of our fond- 
est affection — and in the midst of these trying 
scenes and heart-rending visitations, we are per- 
mitted to send our messenger of prayer to heaven, 
to beseech Almighty God to visit us with salvation, 
and to beseech him with an intensity of desire, and 
an energy of language proportioned to the severity 
of what we feel and fear. But still our prayers 
are defective, and unbecoming, and unacceptable, 
unless they convey the homage of unaffected and 
unqualified submission. We may obtain what we 
ask, but it may prove in our sad experience to be 



SER. 15. PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 337 

a curse instead of a blessing. We may, as to 
the subject of our entreaties, receive " beauty for 
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning*, and the garment 
of praise for the spirit of heaviness but at the 
same time we may be putting away from us the gift 
of eternal life, and continuing in those fatal corrup- 
tions from which the fire of affliction was intended 
to purify and save us. And thus the ordinance of 
prayer, which was appointed to help us to " work 
out our salvation," may be perverted into the in- 
strument of impatience, ungodliness, and ruin. Let 
us, therefore, be ready, amidst all our distresses, to 
commit our lot to the undisputed management of 
God. Let no weight of trial tempt us to with- 
draw from him that confidence which we ought to 
repose in the dealings of infinite perfection. In our 
saddest experience, let us cast all our cares and all 
our sorrows upon Him " who careth for us," and is 
' ' afflicted in all our afflictions ;" resting assured that 
there is both wisdom and mercy in his most deso- 
lating dispensations, though a dejected and dis- 
trustful heart would lead us to suspect that his wis- 
dom had failed in its exercise, or that his " mercy 
was clean gone for ever." And while we address 
to him the prayer, which he himself, as the Au- 
thor of our natural frame, has taught us to utter, 
and to which the example of his own Son has given 
a high and sacred sanction, that " if it be possible, 
each successive cup of affliction may pass from us," 
let us never forget, and never fail, to annex the 

z 



338 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15, 



tribute of a sincere, enlightened, and entire resig- 
nation ; /'nevertheless, O Lord not my will but 
thine be done." 

3. In the third place, our prayer in the time of 
affliction must be the prayer of faith. On no oc- 
casion can we expect that our prayers will meet with 
a favourable reception or a gracious answer, unless 
they be preferred in the name of Christ. All in- 
tercourse with God is forbidden which is not car- 
ried on through the medium of Him, who alone 
is the true and living " way to the Father." Sin 
has separated between God and us ; and it is by the 
mediation of his own Son, that this wall of separa- 
tion has been removed — that reconciliation with the 
divine majesty has been effected — that the throne 
of grace has been made accessible to us. And when 
we apply to the Almighty for any blessing, the 
application must be made in a dependence upon the 
merit of that Saviour who has "made peace by the 
blood of his cross," and through whom it is that we 
receive the spirit of adoption, and are permitted to 
cry " Abba Father." But while no prayer, except 
a believing prayer, can at any time be effectual ; 
there is a peculiar propriety in those who pray 
while they are afflicted, being " strong in faith." 
All our afflictions are so many proofs of our being 
sinners, and, as sinners, unworthy of the divine fa- 
vour. Had there been no sin, there would have 
been no suffering. And therefore, when we suffer, 
we have, in the pain and sorrow we endure, an une- 
quivocal demonstration that guilt attaches to us in the 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



339 



sight of God. Guilt and suffering being thus asso- 
ciated in our minds, surely we cannot reasonably 
pray that the latter may be removed or mitigated, 
while no method has been employed to expiate the 
former, or while we do not acknowledge the method 
of expiation which God has compassionately pro- 
vided. If therefore, there be a necessity for our 
appealing to the merit of the Redeemer, in order 
that our application for any boon, or mercy what- 
ever, may be attended with success, the necessity 
becomes the stronger and more obvious, when that 
application refers to afflictions — every one of which, 
whether it be great or inconsiderable, reminds us 
of our disobedience and alienation from God, is a 
standing and impressive evidence that we can ex- 
pect nothing on the footing of personal desert, and 
shuts us up more conclusively and effectually, to 
the faith of Him through whom alone we can find 
acceptance, and obtain the blessings which our 
prayers implore. And while in this way there is a 
peculiar propriety in the prayer that we offer in 
reference to our afflictions, being that of faith, 
there is also a peculiar encouragement suggested 
by the same subject. Jesus Christ, in whom we 
trust for the efficacy of our petitions, was a suffer- 
ing Saviour : it was by suffering that he became 
perfect as the Author of our redemption ; and it is 
because he suffered in our nature and in our stead, 
that he is now " exalted at the right hand of the 
Majesty on high," and that " he ever liveth to make 
intercession for us," and that we are promised " all 



840 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



things whatsoever we shall ask in prayer believing*. ,, 
When, therefore, we are required to put our confi- 
dence in him for attaining that comfort and support 
in affliction, or that deliverance from it, or that 
sanctified use of it, which we supplicate at the throne 
of grace, we are required to put our confidence in 
One who " bore our griefs and carried our sorrows" 
— who was " tempted in all things as we are" — 
who is " touched with a fellow-feeling of our in- 
firmities," and whose advocacy, therefore, we may 
rest assured, will be quickened and invigorated, 
when it is employed to enforce those petitions 
which we offer up as the children of distress. In 
these circumstances, let us think devoutly of all 
that Jesus endured, while he tabernacled upon 
earth : let us remember that though the days of his 
mourning are long since ended, he has not forgotten 
the waves and the billows of adversity that went 
over him in the days of his flesh : let us bear in 
mind that the sympathies which he manifested in 
this world cannot have forsaken him in the better 
world into which he has entered : let us not cease, 
in all our thoughts of him, to associate closely 
and intimately his present mediation in our behalf, 
with his former suffering in our behalf : and when 
we cry to God from the midst of our troubles and 
trials, let it be with an unwavering and delighted 
confidence in the might, and in the compassion, and 
in the tenderness of our " Great High Priest who 
has passed into the heavens," and who there pleads 
our cause as earnestly and as affectionately as if it 
were his own. 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION, 



341 



4. In the fourth place, our prayer in the time of 
affliction, must be the prayer of holiness. The 
apostolic precept is, that, in all our addresses to 
God, we " lift up holy hands." And the Psalmist 
has also said, " If I regard iniquity in my heart, 
the Lord will not hear me." To approach God in 
prayer, while conscious that we are enemies to him 
in our minds, and by the habitual course of our con- 
duct, is to insult the purity and majesty of his cha- 
racter, and to court as well as to incur his indigna- 
tion. While, therefore, we go to him in the name 
of Christ, we should go to him also in the sanctifi- 
cation of the Spirit — repenting of our sins, and 
cherishing holy affections, and studying conformity 
to the image of him whom we profess to worship. 
And much more should this be the case, when we 
address ourselves to him as his afflicted offspring. 
Our afflictions, though not to be viewed as specific 
punishments for specific transgressions, are yet, 
agreeably to our former remark, to be regarded as 
tokens of God's displeasure against sin, and as sig- 
nificant intimations that he will be " sanctified of 
all them that draw near to him." When, therefore, 
we draw near to him in affliction, it is the more in- 
dispensable that we do so with " clean hands and 
with pure hearts ;" having " our hearts sprinkled 
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed as 
with pure water." But when I speak of our prayer 
in affliction being the prayer of holiness, I refer 
chiefly to the practical and ultimate end which we 
ought to have in view. " This is the will of God," 



342 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



when he lays upon us his chastening hand, " even 
our sanctification." And this is an object of vast 
importance. It is distinctly set before us as the 
object which all our suffering's are appointed, or 
overruled, to promote. And consequently, our 
prayer, when we are subjected to them, should 
point to it constantly and earnestly. We are apt 
to be contented with asking the removal, or the mi- 
tigation, of our trials, and to think that all is well 
when we obtain either the one or the other. But, 
alas ! we have gained nothing that is substantially 
and permanently beneficial, unless they have been 
made instrumental in improving our principles and 
our character ; and unless, from our experience of a 
sanctified result, we can say with truth, ' ' it is good 
for us that we have been afflicted." Such effects as 
these, are precious in the sight of God ; they are 
precious to us now, and they will be precious to us 
for ever: whereas a mere deliverance from pain 
and misfortune, however immediate, and however 
complete, has no necessary bearing on the destiny 
of our souls, and is quite compatible with our con- 
tinuance under " the curse of the law," and our 
endurance of the terrors of " the second death." 
Let us, therefore, keep continually in view the 
practical benefits which our afflictions may be the 
means of securing ; and let us pray that we may 
derive from them all the advantage which they are 
fitted to confer. Let us pray that they may be 
sanctified for weaning us more and more from the 
world and from sin — for bringing us into a closer 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



343 



walk with God, and for rendering us more submis- 
sive to his will, and more active in his service. Let 
us pray that, though, for the present, they may 
" not seem joyous but grievous/' yet that, cost what 
it will to our tenderest feelings, they may work out 
for us " the peaceable fruits of righteousness." And 
finally, let us pray that they may have such an in- 
fluence on our whole temper and our whole con- 
duct, as to contribute to the cultivation of that cha- 
racter by which we may be qualified for the offices 
and the enjoyments of the sinless and unsuffering 
kingdom of our God and Saviour. 

5. Lastly, our prayer in affliction must be the 
prayer of hope. Unless, indeed, we had hope that 
prayer would be attended with some benefit, we 
should scarcely think of engaging in it at all. At 
least, our engaging in it would, on the contrary 
supposition, be little else than obedience to arbi- 
trary authority, and would speedily degenerate into 
cold and heartless formality. In order to keep 
alive the spirit of devotion, and to render our dis- 
tresses motives instead of discouragements to it, we 
should keep in mind not only the blessings which 
are promised, but the grounds which are afforded 
for our confident expectation that every promise 
will be fulfilled, and that nothing will be withheld 
which our real interest requires. Let us look to 
the character of Him to whom our afflicted hearts 
are lifted up in prayer. Let us listen to the graci- 
ous and animating declarations which he has given 
in his word on this subject. Let us remember 



344 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



the merit and the advocacy of his Son, through 
whom he condescends to regard and to hear us. 
Let us think of the love of his Spirit, who teaches 
us to pray as we ought, and who " makes interces- 
sion for us with groanings which cannot be utter ed»" 
And let us remember the happy experience of his 
people in every age, who have fled to him in the 
season of their adversities, and been made glad at 
the throne of his mercy and in his house of prayer. 
All these things combine to show, that so far 
from having any reason to doubt of his lending a 
favourable ear to our requests and our complaints, 
we have irresistible inducements for anticipating 
the most compassionate treatment — for expecting 
to receive all that we ask and all that we need. 
Let us, therefore, pray in hope ; and thus do hom- 
age to the grace and the faithfulness of him upon 
whom we call, and encourage ourselves to petition 
for a supply to our wants, as large and as liberal as 
their multitude, and their extent, and their compli- 
cated variety, may demand. Let us pray in the 
hope that God will " bind up our broken hearts," 
and " strengthen our feeble knees," and heal our 
wounded spirits ; and that if he should not see meet 
to rescue us from the sorrows by which we are op- 
pressed, he would give us strength to bear them with 
fortitude and patience. Let us pray in the hope, 
that, continuing us in the furnace of affliction, he 
will make the trial subservient to our spiritual pu- 
rification and our moral advancement. And let us 
pray in the hope which looks beyond a present 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



845 



world — beyond all its joys and all its afflictions — 
which " enters into that within the vail" — and fixes 
its longing and delighted eye on " the rest that re- 
maineth for the people of God," and on the recom- 
pense of those who have " come through much tri- 
bulation," and have entered into glory. 

Thus praying, my Christian friends, in the sea- 
son of affliction, the happiest consequences may rea- 
sonably, may confidently, be expected. There is in 
the exercise itself a direct and manifest tendency to 
produce beneficial effects, independently of any spe- 
cific promises which God has annexed to it. It im- 
plies the recognition of God as that Being by whom 
our lot in the world is arranged, and to whose so- 
vereign rule we ourselves, and all that we have, and 
all that can affect our feelings or our condition, are 
necessarily and unreservedly subject. It implies 
the serious contemplation of those attributes of his 
character, and of those ways of his providence, which 
are calculated to reconcile us to every thing that be- 
fals us, by assuring us of its gracious purpose, and 
of its final and glorious issue. It implies, in the va- 
rious views, and meditations, and petitions with 
which it employs the mind, the union, equally sooth- 
ing and sanctifying, of our severest sufferings, with 
whatever is elevating in faith, and excellent in con- 
duct, and delightful in anticipation. It implies the 
assured and gratifying confidence with which, as 
the children of God, we pour all our fears, and anx- 
ieties, and distresses into the bosom of our heavenly 
Father ; and repose our wearied and agitated hearts 



34G 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



on the manifestation of his paternal character, and 
on the experience of his paternal love ; and com- 
bine, in all the tenderness and in all the energy of 
filial affection, the faithful discipline to which he 
subjects us upon earth, with the holy and unfading- 
inheritance which he has laid up for us in heaven. 

And, while such is the native and blessed influence 
of prayer in the season of affliction, we are to recol- 
lect, that prayer is the instituted means of obtaining 
from God the grace that is necessary to support and 
comfort, to sanctify and deliver us. We have no 
title to look for any blessing from him, except 
through its instrumentality. But, if we engage in 
it in a proper spirit and in a proper manner, he is 
pledged by the wisdom of his plans and the con- 
sistency of his administration, to grant us according 
to the voice of our petitions. He commands us to 
cry to him in the midst of our perplexities and sor- 
rows ; and supposing his commandment stood alone 
and unconnected with any promise, it would mean 
nothing less than that our cry would be kindly and 
compassionately regarded. But there is a promise, 
to give ardour to our supplications and comfort to 
our hearts — a promise that he will graciously hear 
us, and that he will send us an answer full of pity 
and beneficence. And though " all his promises 
are yea and amen in Christ Jesus," yet if there be 
one of them on whose fulfilment we can count 
with certainty, it is that which, as " the Father 
of mercies and the God of all consolation," he 
holds out to his people, when they " call 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



347 



upon him in the time of trouble." He may not 
indeed, be pleased to give them those precise ex« 
pressions of his regard, which they make the object 
of their request. They may have asked these in 
ignorance or in error, and it may be a part of the 
very mercy which they were imploring to withhold 
them for a time, or to withhold them altogether. 
But they may rest assured, that behind this cloud 
of grief and disappointment, there is a love which 
melts for their distresses — which is lending a com- 
passionate ear to all their aspirations — which is 
silently, but effectually, guarding and protecting and 
blessing them — and which is minutely providing for 
them, and tenderly applying to them, every thing 
that is truly desirable, either as to their state of 
feeling under affliction, or as to their character 
upon earth, and their felicity in heaven. 

Yes, my believing friends, when you were bowed 
down with sorrow, you went to the throne of grace, 
and in the spirit of humility and submission, and in 
the name of your merciful High Priest, you besought 
the Lord to interpose in your behalf, and you can 
bear the testimony of a blessed experience to the 
readiness with which he hears, and to the liberality 
with which he answers, his people, when they " cry 
unto him out of the depths." You were lightened by 
" casting your burden" upon Him who has promis- 
ed " to sustain it." You received deeper impressions 
of those great and precious truths which he has re- 
vealed for the comfort of them that mourn. You 
heard, as it were, a voice from heaven speaking 



o48 PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. SER. 15. 

peace to your troubled mind. You felt yourselves 
soothed amidst the pains which harassed, and rais- 
ed above the fears which agitated you. You ob- 
tained strength to bear with fortitude the trials with 
which you were visited, and to encounter with 
tranquillity the ills that were yet to beset your 
path : and were enabled not only to endure with 
patience, but even to " rejoice in tribulation ;" to 
bless the name of the Lord, though he had taken 
from you your dearest earthly comforts ; to mingle 
with the saddest notes of lamentation, the accents 
of gratitude and praise to him whose rod had smit- 
ten you ; and to rise from your knees, cheered by 
what you had tasted of the grace of God, " encom- 
passed with songs of deliverance," and animated by 
a more vigorous and more lively exercise of the 
" hope that is full of immortality." 

And if there be any to whom all this is rather 
an object of desire than a matter of experience ; any 
who have been afflicted, and who have prayed and 
have not found the comfort, or the relief, or the 
benefit, which they asked and expected ; and who 
are shedding tears which there is no hand to wipe 
away ; who are " walking in darkness and have no 
light ;" who are suffering and supplicating and suf- 
fering still ; to such of you I would say, distrust 
not the promises of your God, nor the interces- 
sions of your Saviour : ' 6 follow on to know the 
Lord," and you shall know him as " the hearer of 
prayer," and as " a present help in the time of 
need;" wrestle, as did Jacob, with " the Angel of his 



SER. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLfCTION. 



849 



presence i" be importunate with him as was the 
widow who " cried day and night and sooner or 
later, in one form or in another, you shall find, in 
the rest and comfort which are imparted to your 
soul, that he has not forgotten, but has been " wait- 
ing, to be gracious." And should you still be 
doomed to seek rest and not to find it ; should the 
earth be mourning under your feet, and the heaven 
above you be clothed with blackness, and should 
even the shades of death be closing in upon you, 
without any sensible communication of divine com- 
fort, and without any distinct perception of the 
reasonableness and utility of your afflictions, not- 
withstanding a thousand and a thousand entreaties 
for light and deliverance, even then I would say 
to you, — r" continue instant in prayer, still trust in 
God," still bend before his throne of mercy, and 
still cherish the hope that at length he will give you 
complete relief and everlasting consolation ; that 
the prayers of suffering mortality shall ere long be 
converted into the anthems of unmingled praise ; 
and that, in the unclouded light of heaven, you shall 
see the faithfulness of Him whose hand had here 
pressed so heavily on your spirit ; and admire the 
wisdom and the mercy of that thorny way by which 
he had led you to your eternal home, and lift up the 
song of rapturous and never-ending gratitude to him 
for those very providences which here had well nigh 
overthrown your faith, and well nigh broken your 
heart. 

But, what shall I say to those who are strangers 

i 



350 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SEli, 15. 



to prayer ; who habitually neglect this duty ; and 
who, whether in joy or in sorrow, never devoutly 
look up to God, to thank him for the one, or to 
supplicate from him relief and comfort in the other ? 
Ah ! my friends, if you are not given to prayer ; if 
prayer do not form a constituent part of your re- 
ligious exercises ; if you have not its spirit dwelling 
in you ; and if it do not hold its due place in 
your character — you are not Christians, and cannot 
appropriate the promises, or look forward to the in- 
heritance, unfolded in the gospel. You may call 
yourselves by what name you please ; you may 
make the most specious professions before the 
world ; you may sit down with great outward so- 
lemnity at the Lord's Table ; and you may have 
the reputation, and even the reality, of much per- 
sonal virtue and much active benevolence ; but not 
praying to God who commands you to pray to him 
— not making use of this appointed method of ob- 
taining forgiveness, and sanctification, and eternal 
life ; you must necessarily remain guilty and cor- 
rupted — children of wrath and heirs of hell. This 
is the conclusion that the word of God forces up- 
on you, and from which no ingenuity can enable 
you to escape. And have you courage to rest in 
this conclusion ? Are you prepared for enduring 
the gnawings of " the worm that never dies," and 
the torments of " the fire that is never quenched ?" 
Are you ready to meet in judgment, and to bear 
through eternity, the vengeance of that God whose 



SEll. 15. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



351 



commandment you have disobeyed, and whose kind- 
ness you have set at nought ? None of you, I trust, 
is so stout-hearted. " Arise, then, and call upon 
your God." " Seek him while he may be found, 
call upon him while he is near." Delay not till 
death has formed an impassable gulf between you and 
your Maker. You are now not far from the graves 
where the dust of many of your fathers, and your 
neighbours, and your friends, is reposing in awful 
and unbroken silence. And you know not how 
soon — you know not how suddenly — your dust shall 
be mingled with theirs. O then, improve this the 
" day of your merciful visitation" — and " harden 
not your hearts." Live no longer " without God 
in the world." Let it not be said of any one of 
you, when you are sleeping in the earth, " This is 
the grave of one who once had free access to the 
throne of grace, but never went to it — never bent 
his knees — never lifted up his eye to heaven — 
never uttered a devout petition — never conceived 
one cordial wish for the salvation of his soul. And 
now the ear of mercy is shut, and the power of ad- 
dressing it is gone for ever." O thoughtless and 
prayerless sinner, return unto Him whom you have 
forsaken, and away from whom you can have no 
comfort in distress, no happiness in life, no hope at 
the hour of dissolution. Return to him — return to 
him with your whole heart ; return to him through 
Jesus Christ, who is the true and living way ; and 
he will " receive you graciously" — he will " love 



352 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



SER. 15. 



you freely" — he will put into your heart " the spirit 
of grace and supplication" — he will guide you 
through the wilderness in which you are now wan- 
dering with heedless steps ; and he will at length 
conduct you into the land of promise and of eternal 
rest. 



353 



SERMON XVI * 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 
JEREMIAH XVH. 14. 

" Save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved' 1 

These are the words of a true penitent. It is pro- 
bable that they were used by the Prophet, in refer- 
ence to the persecutions in which he was involved, 
as a messenger of God, and a preacher of righte- 
ousness. But if they were rightly employed by 
him, when exposed to outward or partial dangers, 
with still greater propriety may they be employed 
by those who feel that they are subject to all the 
evils and perils which sin brings upon its votaries. 
And it is in this application that we propose to 
make them the subject of our present discourse. 

I. In the first place, then, we may regard them 
as expressing a deep concern about salvation, and 
an earnest desire to obtain it. 

* Preached in St. George's Church, before the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper, on Sabbath 5th Nov. 1825. 

°Z A 



354 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. 16. 



Every man's real state as a sinner consists in his 
being- under a sentence of condemnation and under 
the dominion of depravity ; and in his being liable, 
in a future world, to all the threatened and dread- 
ful consequences of his violation of the divine law. 
This is the fact ; though it often, alas ! too often, 
happens that those with respect to whom it is most 
undeniably true, are either not aware of it, or not 
alive to it ; and though continuing to be thus ignor- 
ant, or thus careless, they have nothing to expect 
but final and inevitable ruin. 

A1J, however, are not so insensible to the hor- 
rors of their situation. There are some who have 
been awakened to a conviction of their sin and 
misery, who not merely acknowledge that they are 
transgressors, but are roused to a serious and alarm- 
ing view both of the degradations and of the perils 
which are attached to that character, and who are 
oppressed by an overpowering perception, and a 
deep unconquerable feeling, of the helplessness and 
hopelessness of their fallen condition. In such 
circumstances there exists a strong and restless 
anxiety to be delivered from the evils with which 
their consciences are burdened, and from that 
everlasting destruction into which sin will ulti- 
mately plunge its victims, and which rises up before 
them as the fate to which they are justly doomed. 
Looking up to God, and beholding in him the Be- 
ing whose will they have disobeyed, whose good- 
ness they have despised, whose indignation they 
have provoked \ looking forward to futurity, and 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



355 



realizing " the judgment of the great day/' the 
" worm that never dies," and " the fire that never 
shall be quenched;" and calling to mind, and 
dwelling upon, the multitude of circumstances by 
which their guilt has been aggravated, and by 
which their punishment shall be increased ; how 
dreadful the apprehensions by which they are agi- 
tated ! how poignant their distress, how intense and 
vehement their desire for deliverance from the di- 
vine displeasure, and from " the wrath to come !" 

But the true penitent is troubled not merely at 
the thought of condemnation ; nor does he confine 
his longings to deliverance from it. The wrath to 
which he is exposed may be first and uppermost in 
his mind ; nor are we to wonder that for a season 
it should absorb every other consideration, and that 
it should never cease to occupy a large portion of his 
anxiety. But his views of salvation are much more 
enlarged. He adverts not merely to the greatest and 
most overwhelming of the calamities of which his sin- 
fulness is productive — he regards every one of them 
with proportional concern, and is solicitous for its re- 
moval. He not only cherishes a lively aversion to 
all that stings him with remorse, or that fills him 
with alarm ; he mourns also the loss of those posi- 
tive blessings of which his apostacy has deprived 
him, and thirsts for their recovery. He limits not 
his attention to any one department of his sinful 
and miserable estate, nor treats the most inconsid- 
erable portion of it with coldness or unconcern ; 
he surveys it through all its variety and extent, and 



356 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. 16. 



feels alive to all the fears it is fitted to create, 
and to all the pain it is fitted to inflict, and to 
all the solicitude it is fitted to awaken. And 
salvation, in its most comprehensive import, be- 
comes the object of his intensest interest and of 
his fondest affection, as implying his emancipa- 
tion from all that is most formidable, and his at- 
tainment of all that is most precious, to a fallen 
but immortal nature. The anxiety of which he 
is conscious is not merely to escape from hell ; as 
if, escaping from hell, he were careless about his 
future destiny ; he knows that he has lost heaven, 
the place of happiness and purity, for which he was 
originally formed, and which is worthy of his best 
ambition, and he is desirous to regain it. It is not 
merely to be relieved from the terror of God's an- 
ger, as if, would God but cease to frown on him, he 
were careless how God might regard him otherwise ; 
but to be reconciled to him and to " walk in the 
light of his countenance," from the persuasion that 
this would be alike his honour and his joy. It is 
not merely to be restored to the favour of God, 
and to the hope of heaven, as if he would be sa- 
tisfied to have these along with the gratification of 
still unmortified passions, and the possession of a 
still rebellious heart ; but to be renewed and puri- 
fied as well as pardoned and accepted ; to be rescu- 
ed from the bondage of corruption, as well as from 
the curse of the law ; to be introduced into the 
liberty of God's children as well as made an heir of 
their inheritance ; to be made fit for holding com- 



SER. 16. 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



357 



munion with God here, by the removal at once 
of guilt and of pollution, and to have this as a fore- 
taste of that more perfect and blissful fellowship 
which his people are to maintain with him hereafter. 

We do not say that all these views occur to the 
true penitent, at the very first stage of his transi- 
tion, or that they ever occur to him in the precise 
and methodical order in which we have stated 
them. There may be a considerable indistinctness 
with regard to many particulars which have a place 
in his mind, and by which his mind is, notwithstand- 
ing, in no small degree affected. It may be long 
before certain points, even of material moment, 
come into his contemplation, or attract much of his 
notice, or strongly influence his heart. And all 
along, the prevailing sentiment may frequently be 
an awful apprehension of God's vengeance against 
the sinner, and of the hazard in which he indi- 
vidually, as a sinner, stands, of falling into perdi- 
tion. But though he must be chiefly occupied with 
the great leading features of his condition, as one 
who has incurred the penalty of hell, and forfeited 
his right to heaven ; and though the contemplation 
of these is sufficient to stir up his soul to serious re- 
flection and distressing anxiety on the subject of 
his personal salvation, yet he will not rest satisfied 
with any thing short of a full detailed consideration 
of all the mischiefs from which that salvation will 
free him, and of all the benefits to which it will re- 
store him. And the longer and the more minute- 
ly he meditates upon these, the more importance 



358 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. 16. 



will he attach to the salvation that he needs, the 
more necessary will he perceive it to be to his wel- 
fare, the more hearfelt will be his concern, and the 
more decided his desire to obtain it. 

II. The true penitent being thus awakened to a 
sense of his need of salvation, and to unfeigned and 
anxious concern about obtaining it, he applies for it 
to Almighty God. " Save me, O Lord." 

Before he was brought to think seriously of his 
situation, and to see his guilt and his danger, God 
was no more the object of his dependance, than he 
was the object of his veneration. He neither re- 
cognised Him as the ruler of his conduct, nor as the 
source of his blessings, but habitually disregarded 
him when he needed help, as he habitually dis- 
obeyed him, when passion prompted, or when temp- 
tation occurred. But now that his sinfulness, and 
the peril with which it threatens him, are brought 
home to his inmost conviction — now that he dis- 
covers an evil impending over him, which human 
skill and human strength are equally unable to 
avert — now that he is made aware of his absolute 
need of blessings which lie beyond his utmost reach 
— now that he feels himself so situated as that no 
resources of his own, no help from the mightiest of 
his fellow-men, nor even the interposition of the 
highest of created beings, can prevent him from 
falling into irretrievable ruin — he turns his eye to 
that God whom he has so long forgotten, and so much 
despised, and perceives in Him the grace and the 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



359 



power from which alone he can expect the salva- 
tion he requires. 

This may be an immediate, or it may be a more 
tardy, result of his convictions of guilt and wretch- 
edness as a transgressor ; but sooner or later it is 
the consequence of these convictions, and forms the 
termination of his anxieties, and the resting place 
of his soul. Perhaps he obtains such a striking and 
impressive view of his miserable condition by sin, 
and is so overborne by a sense of his utter inability 
to do any thing for himself, and is so satisfied that 
he has nothing to hope for from the arm of created 
strength, and has been so much accustomed to hear 
God spoken of as merciful and omnipotent, and so 
willingly and readily believes all that the scriptures 
have declared respecting these attributes, and is 
withal so guided and determined by the teaching 
of the divine Spirit, who is with him at every step 
of his progress — that he is led at once and without 
hesitation to cast his regards towards Jehovah, and 
to trust in Him, and in Him exclusively for salvation. 
Or it may not be till after various struggles and re- 
peated disappointments — till he has tried to pacify 
his conscience by thinking lightly of his worst sins, 
and fondly of his seeming virtues — till he has 
thrown himself upon time or chance, or something 
else as vain and empty — it may not be till after such 
experiments as these to which the carnal mind is 
so apt to cling pertinaciously and perversely, that he 
looks to God as his only refuge, and turns to him 
as his stronghold in the midst of agitation and 



360 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. 16. 



trouble. In this case, it is but gradually that the 
insufficiency of those helps to which he had recourse, 
is made apparent to him. One of them after an- 
other, he feels to be unsuitable and inadequate. 
He finds that he has nothing approaching to rest 
or peace, except in those moments when he is 
favoured with a glimpse of divine compassion. And 
at last he turns his back on all " the refuges of 
lies" which had only deceived and perplexed him, 
and concludes the spiritual strife which wrought 
within him, by committing himself with hope and 
with confidence to the Lord his God. 

At whatever period he is brought to this issue, 
he cannot but be convinced, that in it, and in no 
other, can he find deliverance and repose. It must 
be obvious to him that whatever else has invited his 
affiance, or promised him relief, has only been de- 
luding him ; for as it is against God that he has 
sinned, and to God that he is accountable, nothing 
can possibly screen him from the proper conse- 
quences of his guilt, which does not originate in the 
authoritative appointment and good pleasure of 
God. It is the peculiar prerogative of God to de- 
termine whether sinners shall be saved at all, and if 
so, by what means that operation of his sovereignty 
shall be accomplished, and to whom, amidst the 
multitude of transgressors, the high privilege shall 
be granted. When, therefore, the awakened sin- 
ner turns away his thoughts and his reliance from 
God, he can experience nothing but failure and 
disappointment. And indeed, whenever he allows 



SER. 16. 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



361 



himself to look steadily at his mental inquietudes, 
he must be sensible that they all arise from a con- 
sciousness of having offended God ; and thus the 
very circumstance which constitutes his need of 
deliverance, and makes him so anxious to obtain it, 
necessarily directs his view to God, as the only 
source from which it can be derived. 

But the true penitent is not only so hedged in, 
that he must either apply to God, or perish in 
his iniquities ; he is also persuaded to make that 
application, by the comfortable and encouraging re- 
presentations of the divine character that are set 
before him in the gospel. This indeed is essential 
to his making that application, in a right spirit, and 
with ultimate success. Did he see nothing in the 
divine character but holiness to hate sin, and jus- 
tice to award condemnation, and omnipotence to 
execute the sentence on the guilty, he could 
scarcely dare to address himself to the Being, of 
whom these attributes were the sole characteristics, 
for any redemption from his misery. This would 
be more like the effect of mad despair, than the ex- 
pression of natural feeling, or of rational purpose, 
and could never be expected either to impart com- 
fort, or to terminate in salvation. But the true 
penitent has been enabled to entertain more cor- 
rect and honourable views of the perfections of 
God. God is indeed revealed to his mind as holy, 
and just, and powerful ; but with these attributes 
the contemplation of which is so directly calculated 
to convince him of his perilous and miserable state 



362 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. 16. 



as a sinner, there is conjoined the richest mercy, 
and the tender est compassion, which forbid him to 
sink into despondency, or to regard himself as 
utterly abandoned to wretchedness. Nay, it is the 
knowledge that such mercy and compassion belong to 
God, and compunction for having aggravated his guilt 
by perseverance in sin, while such mercy and compas- 
sion were so often displayed before his eyes, and ex- 
ercised towards himself, that inflict upon his con- 
science the bitterest pangs he is now doomed to feel. 
In this way, the very occasion of his most poignant 
sorrow, and of his most dreadful anticipations, is also 
the occasion of his looking to God, and trusting in 
Him for salvation, by reminding him that He whose 
displeasure he has incurred, and whose wrath he has 
so much reason to fear, is no more relentless than 
he is unrighteous, and that notwithstanding all 
the provocations he has received from his apostate 
children, and all their contempt of his law, and ingra- 
titude for his forbearance, he has not forgotten to 
pity them, and has not allowed their perverseness 
to quench his love, but has this for his unchange- 
able memorial, that he is " the Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and slow to 
anger, abundant in goodness and in truth." Nor 
does the true penitent rest contented with general 
impressions of God's compassion to sinners, and of 
his willingness to save them. He takes that near- 
er, and still more interesting, view of the subject 
which is afforded by the dispensation of the gospel. 
There God is revealed as not only declaring that 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 363 

he is ready to extend forgiveness to the guilty, but 
as embodying his declarations in a plan -for their re- 
demption — as giving his own Son to be a sacrifice 
of atonement for the sin of the world — as making 
every provision which unbounded goodness could 
dictate for the accomplishment of his benevolent de- 
sign — as assuring us that Christ whom he has ap- 
pointed to execute it, is commissioned to save even 
the chief of sinners — as affectionately inviting the 
most unworthy, and the most helpless to come to him 
by that " new and living way" which he has opened 
up for their approach, and as constraining them to 
accept of the invitation by the gracious assurance 
that he has " no pleasure in the death of the wick- 
ed," but would rather that they should " turn to him 
and live." And, to God revealed to him in this 
endearing light — to God in whom " mercy rejoiceth 
against judgment," and who has said and demon- 
strated that he will not reject even the guiltiest of 
our race that comes to him through the appointed 
Mediator — it is impossible that the true penitent 
should look with any. portion of indifference or 
distrust, or that he should go to Him with reluc- 
tance or with jealousy, or that he should not sur- 
s render himself to Him, in the humble but assured 
hope that He will be to him the rock of his salva- 
tion. The nature and exigency of his situation 
compel him to have recourse to God as alone able 
to deliver him. The divine mercy exhibited in the 
gospel encourages him to put his confidence in God, 
as perfectly willing to bestow the deliverance he is 



364 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. SER, 16. 



so anxious to attain. Every new proof that he dis- 
covers of God's kindness gives him a more forcible 
impression of the heinousness of his guilt and of the 
folly of his conduct, and shows him still more clear- 
ly how much he must lose by remaining in a state 
of alienation and impenitence, and thus adds a 
fresh and double impulse to the anxiety that he feels, 
and the desire that he cherishes, for pardon and re- 
conciliation. It, therefore, becomes the spontane- 
ous, and the predominant, and the continued out- 
going of his affections, " Save me, O Lord, and I 
shall be saved." 

III. This leads me to observe, in the third place, 
that the true penitent applies to God for salvation 
through the medium of prayer, " Save me, O 
Lord." 

In ordinary cases, if we be labouring under the 
pressure of any evil, and be acquainted with any 
individual who is both willing and able to remove 
it : Or, if we have trespassed against a fellow-mor- 
tal, whose displeasure we are anxious to turn away, 
and whose friendship we are. anxious to regain, and 
on whose inclination to be reconciled we have rea- 
son to depend : In these, and in all similar in- 
stances, we invariably employ the language of peti- 
tion — we ask what we wish to have, and what we 
believe there is a disposition to give. And he who 
in such circumstances should neglect that mode of 
attaining his object would be accounted foolish, or 
insincere, or inconsistent. In like manner, it can- 
not be supposed that the sinner should have his 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 365 



eyes opened to see the awful hazard which en- 
compasses him as a rebel against heaven — that he 
should be full of the alarm which that object is so 
powerfully fitted to excite — that he should be truly 
desirous to escape from the destruction that is about 
to overtake him, and to obtain the blessings of par- 
don, and sanctification, and eternal life which stand 
opposed to it — that he should give full credit to 
God's testimony, and pay due homage to God's 
character when he provides, and promises, and of- 
fers to him all that can secure his safety and his hap- 
piness ; and yet, that he should not beseech God to 
impart to him what he so absolutely needs, and what 
God is so ready to bestow. This cannot be sup- 
posed. It is quite unnatural. It never did happen, 
and it never can happen. Piety, in all its forms, 
and at all its stages, finds its utterance in prayer. 
And this is especially its utterance when connected 
with the experience of calamities that must be taken 
away, or of wants that must be supplied. The mo- 
ment that the sinner feels the real burden of his 
transgressions, and is made fully sensible of his need 
of divine mercy, that moment he as naturally, 
and as necessarily, cries to God, for the requisite 
communications, as the hungry child craves bread 
from its bountiful parent, or as the condemned cri- 
minal supplicates pardon from his compassionate 
sovereign. A man may ask forgiveness, while des- 
titute of the emotions and workings of genuine re- 
pentance. But that request is just as indispensable 
to the true penitent as any one feeling by which 



366 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. 16. 



his heart is pervaded, or any one action by which 
his conduct is distinguished. If you can say of any 
sinner, " Behold he repenteth," you may say, at the 
same moment, and with equal certainty, " Behold 
he prayeth !" 

And the penitent transgressor not only feels his 
heart naturally lifted up to God in prayer, when 
convinced that it is he " from whom cometh his 
aid he also applies in that way, in conformity to 
the divine institution. He knows that prayer is 
the appointed method of seeking* for and of obtain- 
ing the blessings of salvation. It is sanctioned and 
ordained by that very Being to whom he is to be 
indebted for " every good and perfect gift." Disre- 
garding it, he is aware that all his guilt will remain 
uncancelled, and all his spiritual necessities unsuppli- 
ed. But employing it aright, he has the assurance 
that nothing shall be withheld which is essential to 
his welfare. He is too much humbled under the 
weight of his demerit — too much mortified by the 
folly and the waywardness of his past doings — too 
much shut up to a depen dance on divine wisdom 
and divine bounty, for the deliverance for which he 
so deeply sighs, to have any disrelish for the ordi- 
nance by which his offended Maker has seen proper 
that he shall acknowledge his unworthiness and des- 
titution, and procure those benefits to which he has 
otherwise no just title, and which must come to 
him from the Hearer of prayer, or not come at all. 
Far from objecting to it, he acquiesces in it with 
cheerfulness and gratitude. He regards it as a to- 



SER. 16. 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



367 



ken of the condescension and kindness of his hea- 
venly Father. He recognises in it a wise, as well 
as a merciful, adaptation to the feelings which ani- 
mate him, and to the situation in which he stands. 
He feels that he is a criminal, self-condemned and 
self-abased, trembling, yet hoping, in the presence 
of that God who at once hates sin and pities the 
sinner. He is aware that his weakness, his blind- 
ness, and his degeneracy, require that his inter- 
course with the Eternal shali pass through a chan- 
nel so level to his apprehension and so suited to his 
case, as that of prayer and supplication. He, there- 
fore, goes at once to the throne of grace ; pours 
out the convictions, and confessions, and desires 
of a broken and contrite heart ; makes all his re- 
quests known to God, who has declared that he 
will " regard the prayer of the destitute," and not 
despise it ; and asks that he may receive " mercy 
to pardon him, and grace to help him in his time 
of need." " Save me, O Lord, and I shall be 
saved." 

But while the true penitent prays for salvation, 
it must not be forgotten that his prayer is the prayer 
of faith. It sometimes happens that sinners who are 
in some measure alarmed by a sense of their manifold 
trespasses, and by the threatenings of death and pun- 
ishment which the divine law denounces against 
them, do betake themselves to the mercy of God, 
and do entreat his forgiveness, But their notions of 
that mercy are vague, and unscriptural, and deroga- 
tory both to its nature and its perfection as a divine 



368 the penitent's prayer. ser. 16. 

attribute ; their entreaties for forgiveness therefore 
are destitute of that meaning, and of those accom- 
paniments, without which they can neither be ac- 
ceptable nor successful. They do not trust in God's 
mercy, as it is made known to them in his own re- 
velation : they do not pray according to the in- 
structions he has given, and in submission to the 
appointments he has made. It is not the salvation 
of the gospel of which they feel their need, or about 
which they are concerned ; it is not the salvation 
of the gospel which they implore ; and accordingly 
it is not the salvation of the gospel, which they 
can ever attain. They know not God, as a God 
of mercy, for they know not Christ, in whom 
alone he is merciful ; and confiding in God, and 
applying to him for mercy, without reference to 
Christ, through whom alone it is either revealed 
or promised, they are as far from the forgiveness 
which they profess to aspire after, as if they had 
never passed one thought upon it, or uttered one 
petition for it. Very different, however, are the 
sentiments entertained, and the course pursued, by 
the true penitent, when he " cries out of the depths," 
" God, be merciful to me a sinner." No doubt 
this supplication is dictated by a sense of danger 
and a desire for safety ; but it is accompanied 
with an enlightened view of the attributes of God, 
and of the manner in which God has been pleas- 
ed to manifest his compassion to guilty men. He 
knows that it is for Christ's sake that the divine 

Being is willing to pardon and redeem, because it is 

i 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT*S PRAYER. 369 



only in that way that he can do so consistently 
with the honour of his character and his govern- 
ment ; and therefore it is only in the name of 
Christ that he ventures to approach the divine pre- 
sence, and only in reliance on the merit of Christ 
that he ventures to ask the blessings of for- 
giveness and acceptance. And, indeed, such now 
are his views of the evil of sin, and such his regards 
towards the God to whom he addresses himself, 
that he would not think of asking any communica- 
tion from him except on such terms as would main- 
tain the divine authority inviolate, and the divine 
glory untarnished. Nor does he feel himself under 
any temptation to put up a single prayer that would, 
in the least degree, or in any respect, demand 
such a sacrifice. In consequence of what Christ 
has done and suffered, in obedience to the will of 
God, and in behalf of perishing sinners, God is "rich 
in mercy and plenteous in redemption to all that 
call upon his name." There is nothing which they 
need, and which He may not dispense so as at once 
to satisfy them and glorify himself. And therefore 
the believing penitent draws near to Him, in the 
spirit and attitude of a humble, yet hoping, suppli- 
ant ; and in the exercise of that faith which em- 
braces in one view the grace of God and the righ- 
teousness of the Redeemer, breathes forth the peti- 
tions of his heart in the language of the prophet, 
" Save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved." 

IV. In the fourth and last place, the language of 
the text expresses the confidence which the true pe- 

% B 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. SER. 16. 



nitent feels, that if the salvation which he asks be 
granted, it will be altogether such as his circum- 
stances require, and such as will more than gratify 
his utmost wishes. 

The phraseology is peculiar, and its peculiarity 
gives it an emphasis far beyond what its literal mean- 
ing possesses. It is as if the penitent said to God 
whom he is addressing, " Were any other being to 
undertake my salvation, I should not be saved. There 
would be some imperfection in the achievement. 
It would have the appearance, without the reality, 
of being efficient. It would be an attempt, but not 
attended with success. It would be something that 
offered, and promised, and tried, and seemed, to de- 
liver me ; and after all, left me to perish. But if 
thou thyself save me, I shall be saved indeed. 
There will be no defect in any one particular by 
which my fate can be affected. There will be no 
feebleness in the purpose ; no inadequacy in the 
power ; no deficiency in the means ; no failure in 
the result. The perfection of thy nature must 
reign in all thy works ; and that provides a security 
that nothing can occur to frustrate or to impair the 
work of my salvation." 

This may not be precisely the language, but it is the 
sentiment, of every believing penitent. It is dictat- 
ed by the first distinct view that he obtains of God as 
a Saviour ; and the longer that he meditates on the 
attributes of God, and on the declarations of his 
word, and on the method of redemption, the more 
is he satisfied that, if what he asks be vouchsafed, 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



there will be nothing* left for him to deprecate on 
the one hand, or to desire on the other. And if, 
in some gloomy moment, any doubt or distrust 
should steal into his mind, it is banished by the 
next survey that he takes of the power and the 
mercy to which he has committed the fortunes of 
his soul, and he again returns to the unsuspecting 
and heartfelt assurance with which he presented 
that expressive prayer, " Save me, O Lord, and 
I shall be saved." 

It is impossible to estimate fully the value of that 
salvation which cometh from the Lord, without an 
exact attention to all the blessings of which it con- 
sists, and all the properties by which it is distin- 
guished. The simplest view, indeed, that can be 
taken of it, is sufficient to show that it is worthy 
of our most intense anxiety, of our most ardent am- 
bition, of our most fervent supplications. But it is 
just in proportion as it is unfolded to our contem- 
plation, or as it comes to be a matter of experience, 
that we shall feel the mixed sentiment of desire to 
possess it, and of confidence that, when possessed, 
it will prove a satisfying portion, which is in- 
timated in the phraseology of the text. And it is 
only in heaven — when we shall have left behind us 
all darkness, and doubt, and fear — when we shall be 
freed from the temptations without, and the cor- 
ruptions within, which here annoy and endanger us 
— when the sentence of acquittal shall have been 
openly and audibly pronounced upon us from the 
throne of final retribution — when we shall behold 



372 the penitent's puayek. ser. 1G. 

the face of a reconciled God beaming upon us^ and 
no consciousness of guilt sliall arise in our minds to 
obscure its brightness— when we shall be in the 
presence of that Saviour who shall then have actually 
brought us out of all our perils and tribulations^ 
that we may dwell in his unsuffering kingdom, and 
sit down with him on his exalted throne — when sin 
and sorrow shall be recollected as the things of 
old, and the recollection of them shall be either 
absorbed in the possession of a purity that is un- 
spotted, and of a joy that is unspeakable, or made 
by contrast to enhance our bliss, and animate our 
hymn of praise ; it is only in heaven that we can 
understand the full meaning of this language which 
the penitent uses, respecting the salvation which he 
supplicates from the Lord, because it is there only 
that we can have the conscious, and delightful, and 
unchangeable feeling of being perfectly safe, per- 
fectly holy, and perfectly happy. 

But to us that land of vision is only in prospect, 
the salvation which dwells in it is only the object 
of anticipation. We are yet in the wilderness, 
where there are enemies to assail us, and allure- 
ments to lead us astray, and difficulties to perplex 
and bewilder our thoughts, and sins to burden our 
conscience, and disturb our tranquillity, and many 
evils to remind us that we are still in a state of 
trial, and must still expect to have much to do, 
and much to suffer. Even here, however, amidst 
all that bedims our views, impairs our comfort, 
and endangers our well-being, we are permitted 



SER. 16. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. SJS 



to see the salvation prepared for us, and conferred 
upon us, in such a light as fully to satisfy our 
minds of its infinite excellence, and its unbounded 
sufficiency. And the true penitent who, when he 
is first roused to a conviction of his sin and misery, 
and thinks of little eke than the ruin which is 
about to overwhelm him, appropriately exclaims, 
H Lord save me, else I perish," may, with still 
more propriety, after the first agitations of his 
spirit are soothed, and he has considered more ma- 
turely all the extent of deliverance that he needs, 
all the felicity of which his nature is capable, and 
all the provision which God, in the riches of his 
grace and wisdom, has made for securing both the 
one and the other, send up the fervent prayer, and 
with it the proffer of his undoubting confidence, 
" Save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved." 

He who has turned to the Lord by penitence 
and prayer, who goes to him by the pathway that 
he has marked out and consecrated, and beseeches 
him for all that is agreeable to divinity to give, and 
necessary for humanity to receive for its recovery 
and happiness, may expect a salvation to whose value 
no limits can be affixed, either by the reason or the 
imagination of man. It is incomparably more im- 
portant and precious than any salvation that can be 
wrought out for his bodily frame, or for his outward 
estate : it embraces the interests of his never-dying 
soul, and affects his destinies in the world of righte- 
ous retribution — rescuing the one from the thral- 



374 the penitent's prayer. ser. 16. 

dom of guilt and moral pollution, and shedding up- 
on the other the light and the glories of an endless 
life. It has instamped upon it the features of truth 
and certainty ; it is not a mere picture of the fancy, 
which, when grasped at by the sinner, mocks his aim 
and vanishes away, but a real substance which he 
can lay hold of, and appropriate, and feel to be the 
very thing which he desired ; and it is not what 
may be given or withheld according to the sugges- 
tions of humour and caprice, but the subject of 
God's promise, and the purchase of Christ's blood, 
and therefore as surely to be bestowed as there are 
honour and veracity in the divine character. It is 
complete ;— affording the sinner not a partial, but a 
total, relief — not conveying to him some blessings, 
but every blessing of which his nature and condition 
are susceptible — not marring his happiness by leav- 
ing some spiritual malady unremedied, or some spi- 
ritual want unsupplied, but providing liberally and 
skilfully, and minutely, for the perfect cure of all 
the diseases with which he is afflicted, and for the 
perfect relief of all the necessities with which he is 
burdened, so that he is redeemed from the endur- 
ance of every evil, and blessed with the enjoyment 
of every good, either in present experience, or in 
future and secure reversion. And, moreover, it is 
permanent ; not to be possessed for a limited period, 
and then perhaps wrested from him, as that to which 
his title is doubtful, or which violence may take 
away, but to be held by a tenure which the 



SER. 16. 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



375 



creature cannot, and which the Creator will not, dis- 
solve. It is God, holy and true, who has given it 
to him, and called him to be a partaker of it ; and 
" the gifts and callings of God are without repent- 
ance." It implies deliverance from the condemn- 
ing sentence of the law ; and those who are thus 
justified, we are assured, " can never come into 
condemnation." It implies exemption from the 
power of sin ; and sin, we are told, shall " no more 
have dominion" over such as divine grace has rescu- 
ed from its captivity. It implies restoration to the 
favour of God ; and to all who are admitted to this 
privilege, its author certifies that, according to the 
terms of the sure and well-ordered covenant, " his 
mercy and his kindness to them will be everlasting." 
It implies redemption from death and the grave ; 
and it is proclaimed to every one who is to be thus 
redeemed, that " the grave shall be destroyed, and 
that death shall be swallowed up in victory." In 
fine, it implies admission into the heavenly world ; 
and it is recorded in that word which is inspired to 
support our faith, and to animate our hopes, that 
they who enter that happy region shall " go out of it 
no more for ever," that the light which there shines 
upon them shall never be extinguished, that the life 
which there animates them shall never come to an 
end, that the crown of glory which there encircles 
their heads, is " a crown of glory that fadeth not 
away." 

Such are the characteristic properties of that 
salvation which the true penitent has in his eye, 



376 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



SER. l(h 



when he puts forth the petition in the text. Its 
intrinsic worth, and the attributes of Him from 
whom he expects to receive it, give earnestness 
and energy to the prayer which he prefers for it. 
And this is his consolation amidst the sins and the 
sorrows which prompt his application, and this is 
his encouragement to make the request known to 
God, and to urge it before his throne, that " asking 
he shall receive, seeking he shall find, knocking it 
shall be opened to him." The same power which 
quickens him into penitence, and suggests the be- 
lieving supplication in which that penitence ascends 
to heaven, secures for it a gracious reception, and 
brings down an answer in peace. And he almost 
speaks the language of piety and experience com- 
bined, when he says, in the language of the prophet, 

Save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved." 

Now, my friends, let me ask you if you have 
ever preferred this petition. If you have, then 
your's is the character in which the Lord delights, 
your's the prayers which he has promised to an- 
swer, and for you all the privileges of his table are 
provided. But if not, it must be concluded that 
repentance is a stranger to your minds— that you 
have not seen the evil of your ways— that you 
are not afraid or distressed on account of your 
transgressions— or that you are indifferent alike 
to the consequences of guilt, and to the blessings 
of salvation. And if you are thus impenitent, 
you are unfit for the table of the Lord, where are 
exhibited the memorials of those sufferings which 



SER. 10. 



THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 



377 



Christ endured to redeem you from your iniquities. 
It is not our prerogative to see into the heart, and 
we cannot prevent you from profaning the ordi- 
nance, and injuring your own souls. But we can 
warn you of the sinfulness and the danger of 
your conduct ; and this warning we now give 
you, beseeching you to remember that God's all- 
seeing eye is upon you — that if there be any truth 
in the Bible, and any worth in the communion 
service, you are provoking him to anger which 
may not soon be turned away — that though admit- 
ted to a participation of the memorials of that sacri- 
fice which taketh away the sin of the world, your 
sins remain upon your head, — and that persevering 
in impenitence and unbelief, there will be no ad- 
mission for you when you die, into the kingdom of 
heaven. Repent, therefore, and believe the gospel. 
Think upon your ways which have not been good ; 
and turn unto the Lord, crying to him in the lan- 
guage and in the spirit of the penitent, H Save me, 
O God, and I shall be saved." 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 



My friends, the solemn service of communion is 
now concluded. And it surely becomes you to re- 



378 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

fleet on the conduct you have maintained, and on 
the experience you have had, as partakers of the 
Lord's Supper. You may, perhaps, imagine, that, 
the service being over, your duty is done, and any 
farther anxiety or trouble is unnecessary. But in 
this you are mistaken — and the mistake which you 
commit is one into which those who feel rightly, 
and think seriously, on the subject of religion, will 
not be apt to fall, or at least are not likely to continue* 
It is possible, on the one hand, that your mode of 
communicating was worthy — that you did it in faith 
and love, with grateful affections, and with holy dis- 
positions — and that you thus honoured the Saviour 
whom you professed to remember. I hope and trust 
that this was the case with many of you. And is it 
not proper that you should be sensible of it, so that 
you may not only enjoy the "testimony of a good 
conscience," but perceive the obligations under which 
you lie to that God who so prepared and guided 
you, and render to him that tribute of thanksgiving 
which you owe him for the influences of his grace ? 
It is possible, on the other hand, that you have not 
partaken worthily of the memorials of Christ's death 
— that you came to the ordinance without the requi- 
site meetness — that you were actuated by improper 
motives — and that you profaned the service, by a 
worldly and unsanctified spirit. Then, surely, it is 
of the highest moment that you should know this, 
in order that you may see the guilt you have con- 
tracted, and the danger to which you are exposed 
—that you may repent of your sin, and apply for 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 379 

its forgiveness — and that, in future, you may be 
more diligent in using the means of preparation, 
and more devout and spiritual in your attendance 
at the table of the Lord. Nay, but even though, 
by the grace of God, you have " kept the feast with 
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," and 
though you have reason to be thankful that you 
were enabled to present your offering with " a pure 
heart and with faith unfeigned," yet is there not rea- 
son to believe that sins and imperfections mingled 
with your service ? And should not you study to 
become acquainted with the defects which have thus 
adhered to you amidst your best endeavours and 
your warmest piety, that you may see the necessity 
of being clothed at all times with the grace of humi- 
lity — of still cleaving close to that Redeemer, with- 
out whom your purest observances cannot be ac- 
cepted — and of asking, with more earnestness than 
ever, the cleansing influences of the Spirit of God ? 

But we alluded not only to the conduct you may 
have maintained — we also referred to the experience 
you may have had. You may have been comforted 
and benefited by engaging in the ordinance of the 
Supper. Your doubts may have been removed — 
your fears may have been dispelled — your mourning 
may have been turned into joy — your faith may have 
been confirmed — your hope may have been enliven- 
ed — and you may have abundant reason to say, " It 
has indeed been a good thing for us to draw near to 
God. He has not only brought us to his banquet- 
ing house, but his banner over us has been love. We 



380 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 



have tasted that he is gracious." Is this what you 
have in any measure felt ? And would you, or can 
you, think of it no longer than during the short sea- 
son of communion ? O no ; you must see it to be 
your duty, and it cannot fail to be your inclination 
and your pleasure, to recal to your fondest recollec- 
tion those tokens of the divine mercy in which your 
hearts have been permitted to rejoice, that thus the 
flame of gratitude may be kindled in your souls — 
that you may be encouraged in time to come to wait 
upon the Lord in his sanctuary and at his table — 
that you may bear a willing testimony to the good- 
ness which he manifests to his people- — and that you 
may furnish yourselves with the most persuasive of 
all arguments, and the most endearing of all mo- 
tives, for loving him with increased affection, and 
serving him with redoubled zeal. 

But it may be that your experience has been 
the very reverse of what we have now supposed — 
that you have been conscious of enjoying no satis- 
faction, and of deriving no advantage, from the 
exercises of communion — that the darkness which 
overshadowed your views has not been dissipated — 
that your tears of sorrow have not been wiped 
away — that no word of peace has been spoken to 
your troubled mind — that the hopes of comfort and 
delight which you had cherished have been sadly 
disappointed, and that you have reason to lament 
an absent Saviour and an absent God. Well, my 
friends, and can it be right that you should be in- 
sensible to all this, and that you should forget it 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 381 

ail ? Or rather, should not it he the subject of your 
deep and solemn meditation ? And while you 
mourn over the melancholy fact, should not you 
be anxious to search into its cause, to discover 
why it is that God has been contending with you 
and hiding his face from you, to ascertain whether 
it has been owing to your extravagant expectations, 
or to mistaken views of religion, or to the want of 
due preparation, or to some defect in your faith, or 
in your humility, or in your prayers, that you have 
not found him whom you were seeking, and have 
come away disconsolate from the Lord's table ? 
Should not you be anxious to know these things, 
that you may not be tempted to "charge God foolish-* 
ly," that you may become acquainted with those 
failings which most easily beset you, that you may 
put away from you the evil thing which has poison-* 
edyour " cup of blessing," and that you may see more 
clearly how you ought to walk, so as to please God 
and to have your joy full, when you approach him 
again in the commemoration of your Saviour's 
death ? 

There is another circumstance which may have 
marked your experience, and of which it would be 
unsafe for you to remain ignorant. You may have 
had such feelings as would lead you to conclude 
that all is well, and to give God thanks ; whereas, 
if strictly investigated, this may be found little 
better than a delusion. The outward service itself 
is so solemn as to impress almost any mind that is 
even but contemplating it at a distance ; and you 



382 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

may have mistaken the solemnity derived from 
the sacredness of the external scene for the work- 
ings of genuine piety. The sufferings of Christ 
have been represented to you by the most affecting 
symbols, and perhaps described to you in the most 
pathetic language, and you may have considered the 
emotions of natural sensibilitv and of natural ten- 
dency excited by these as satisfactory indications of 
love to the Saviour, and of an interest in his death, 
and of sorrow for the sins which brought him to the 
cross. The comforts of the gospel have been un- 
folded to you, and its hopes have been set before 
you in all the richness, and in all the confidence 
which they derive from the death and resurrection 
and promises of the second coming of the Son of 
God ; and without reflecting on the inseparable 
connexion between character and privilege, you may 
have been consoling your hearts with truths to 
which you have no real attachment, and of which 
you have never felt the sanctifying influence ; you 
may have been appropriating to yourselves assu- 
rances of pardon and of salvation which could only 
be intended for persons of far different principles, and 
of far different conduct ; and you may have been 
rejoicing in the prospect of that heavenly happiness 
for which you are not prepared, and into which, 
while you continue what you are, you can never 
enter. You may have been like those who listen 
with profound attention and lively interest to an 
eloquent preacher, and think themselves profited by 
his discourse, though it has been to them nothing 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 383 



more than 6 6 as a very lovely song of one who hath 
a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instru- 
ment." Or you may have resembled some who, 
though walking daily without God in their thoughts, 
and without holiness in their lives, yet, because 
they have been soothed into tranquillity, or elevated 
into rapture, by a fine piece of sacred music, have 
regarded it as at once the proof and the auxiliary of 
their devotion. And is this a deception which you 
would wish to practise on yourselves, or in which 
it is consistent with your best interests to remain ? 
No, surely : Convinced that you are liable to it, 
you will be anxious to discover and to avoid it ; to 
know how far it is holding its mischievous domi- 
nion over you ; and to distinguish between the 
operation of spiritual views and Christian feelings, 
and those affections of the animal nature, and those 
workings of a barren sentimentality, and that pre- 
sumptuous confidence in your well-being which 
have no alliance with true religion, while they are 
perfectly at one with the carnal mind, which is "en- 
mity against God." 

I have to mention still another circumstance 
which may perhaps have distinguished your experi- 
ence on this occasion. Some of you may have par- 
taken of the ordinance without any consciousness 
of attention to its meaning, and without any lively 
sense of the truths and the blessings which it re- 
presents — without any desire or any aversion, any 
hope or any fear, any comfort or any uneasiness, 
any joy or any sorrow — allowing it to glide over 



38 1 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

your minds with perfect calmness— and to make 
no impression and to leave none that is worthy of 
a moment's recollection. Such a state of insensi- 
bility, I need not tell you, betokens much that is 
sinful, and much that is perilous. No state, indeed, 
can easily partake more, either of the one or of the other. 
And unquestionably it is of high importance that 
you detect insensibility, if it has really existed — that 
you ascertain in what degree you have been in- 
different to the spirit of your Saviour's last in- 
junction, and dead to the riches and the glory of 
that event which it commemorates — to all the con- 
solations which it imparts, and to all the hopes 
which it inspires, 

I have stated these things, my friends, for your 
serious consideration. I have not, indeed, stated 
all the possible features of your conduct, nor ail the 
possible incidents of your experience, nor all the 
various modifications and degrees of which these are 
susceptible. But I have stated enough to show you 
the importance and necessity of ascertaining what 
you have really done, and how you have really 
felt, at the table of the Lord : and these things you 
must be desirous to ascertain, unless you are pre- 
pared to say that your religious deportment and 
your spiritual condition are matters of less moment 
than the every-day occurrences of life — and that, in 
whatever light they may appear in the eye of God, 
the knowledge of them need not be to you a sub- 
ject of any anxiety or concern. — Now that your 
knowledge of them may be certain and accurate 

6 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 385 



and complete, it is obviously requisite that you ex- 
amine yourselves — that you look back with a search- 
ing eye on the part you have acted- — that you re- 
flect minutely and maturely on the thoughts which 
have passed through your minds, and on the feel- 
ings which have been awakened and cherished in 
your hearts. Conduct your inquiry with serious 
intentions, with godly jealousy, with strict imparti- 
ality, with constant and humble reference to your 
Bible, and with prayer to God for the enlightening 
and heart-searching influences of his holy Spirit. 
And let your determination be fixed, that whatever 
be the result of this retrospect, you will act accord- 
ing to it, — that while you humbly and gratefully 
appropriate all the comfort of which it may be pro- 
ductive, you will, at the same time, study to supply 
all the defects which it may point out, and repent 
of all the sins with which it may charge you, and 
cultivate the graces of Christianity, with all reno- 
vated zeal and vigour, to which it may be the means 
of calling and of urging you. And thus the exer- 
cise of self-examination, in which I am now exhort- 
ing you to engage, will, by the blessing of God, 
.prove instrumental not only in making you more 
worthy as communicants on every coming oppor- 
tunity that may be afforded you of remembering the 
Saviour in the ordinance of the Supper, but also in 
improving you as to the whole of your Christian 
character, in conducting you along the path of duty, 
and in preparing you for the joy of your Lord. 
And this leads me to offer you a few exhortation* 
2 c 



386 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION* 

respecting the deportment which it will become you 
to observe, and to exhibit in the path of life. That, 
of course, must bear a direct reference to what you 
have done and to what you have witnessed at a 
communion table. There ought, unquestionably, to 
be a strict and evident correspondence between the 
two. This is what is to be expected in the judg- 
ment of propriety, in the judgment of your Chris- 
tian brethren, and in the judgment of the world 
itself. And if you do not realize these expectations, 
you demonstrate that your professions at the Lord's 
table were not sincere, and that, so far as you are 
concerned, the Lord's supper is not a means of im- 
provement — and thus you not only expose your own 
inconsistency and endanger your own souls, but do 
what in you lies to discredit the ordinance of com- 
munion, and to injure the authority and the influ- 
ence of religion among your fellow-men. Far be 
such unhallowed conduct from you, my friends : 
but study to walk worthy of the profession you have 
made, and of the privilege you have enjoyed ; and 
at every step you take in life, call to your remem- 
brance the solemnity, and the import, and the les- 
sons, of this day's service. 

You have declared your faith in the blood of 
atonement. You have not merely commemorated 
the death of Christ, but intimated, in the most im- 
pressive manner, your entire dependence upon the 
merits of that death for taking away your sins, and 
reconciling you to God, and securing you a title to 
heaven. See, then, that you do not abandon this 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 387 

foundation of your hope. Continue to look to the 
great sacrifice which your High Priest offered up- 
on Calvary for the blessings of salvation. And in- 
stead of listening to the suggestions of pride, or 
to the dictates of a false philosophy, or to the scorn 
of an unthinking and ungodly world, which would 
tell you to be ashamed of your Redeemer's cross, 
and to count it foolishness, let it be the object of 
your cordial and your stedfast attachment : be bold 
to avow your adherence to it as your glory and your 
joy ; and never cease to confess Him who suffered 
on it as your only Saviour and your only Lord. 

At the Lord's table you have seen the evil of 
sin — you have seen its evil to be incalculable and 
infinite : For you have contemplated the sufferings 
of Christ as endured to take away sin; and had not 
its intrinsic turpitude and its miserable consequences 
been inconceivably great — had it not been thus 
boundlessly hateful and destructive in the estima- 
tion of God himself, — we cannot suppose that he 
would have required the incarnation and the death 
of his own beloved Son for its expiation. Now, hav- 
ing had this striking view of the odious nature and 
ruinous effects of sin, let it be the object of your 
deep and unqualified and growing detestation. Fly 
from its pollutions as from a deadly pestilence. 
Give not up to its dominion any one of your affec- 
tions. Deny yourselves resolutely to all the al- 
lurements by which it would seduce you from your 
Saviour and your God. Pray without ceasing for 
that Spirit who is promised to renew your hearts, 



388 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

and to sanctify you wholly. And amidst all the 
temptations that will beset you as you travel along 
the path of life, still look to sin as it appears in the 
light of the cross, that you may see what a bitter 
and pernicious thing it is, — that you may never be 
reconciled to the commission of it — that you may 
behold it stripped of all its blandishments and dis- 
guises — that you may shudder at the very thought 
of crucifying the Lord of glory afresh, and putting 
him to an open shame. 

At the Lord's table you have been favoured with 
an astonishing display of the love of God. God was 
there acknowledged as taking compassion on you in 
your sinful and ruined state, and as giving up his 
only begotten Son for your eternal redemption. 
Such love as this " passes all understanding" and de- 
mands from you every return that you can possibly 
make to him by whom it has been manifested. It 
requires not merely that you shall indulge in ad- 
miration — or that your hearts shall be warm- 
ed with gratitude — or that you shall make 
professions of reciprocal affection. All these are 
due ; but they are not sufficient. If the love of 
God which you have been contemplating at the 
Lord's table have its full and proper effect, it will 
constrain you to love him who has "first loved you," 
and to love him with all your heart and with all 
your soul. Now " this is the love of God, that ye 
keep his commandments." Having that sentiment 
shed abroad in your hearts by the power of the 
Holy Ghost, and cherished by the remembrances 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 389 

and the meditations of a communion service, see 
that it determine you to do those things which are 
pleasing to your God and Redeemer, to study a 
universal conformity to his will, to be " fruitful in 
•every good word and work. ^' 

At the Lord's table you have been contemplating 
Christ as a compassionate as well as powerful Sa- 
viour, who is touched with a feeling of your infir- 
mities, and is both able and willing to supply all 
your spiritual wants. Carry this view of him with 
you into the world. There you are to meet with 
trials, and difficulties, and distresses of various 
kinds ; but amidst them all let it be your constant 
care and your constant practice to have recourse to 
Him, to trust in his grace, to lean upon his strength, 
to apply for his direction, and to drink of those 
waters of consolation which he has provided for the 
refreshment and the life of his people. 

At the table of the Lord you have seen Christ as 
the conqueror of death, and have had your views 
directed to his second coining. O yes, my friends, 
by that very death, with all its accompaniments 
of ignominy and of pain, which you have been 
showing forth, Christ overcame death — he plucked 
out its sting — he disarmed it of its terrors — he "abo- 
lished" it — and secured a glorious resurrection and 
everlasting life to all who believe in his name. Bear 
about with you, therefore, " the dying of the Lord 
Jesus," so that not only his " life may be manifest in 
your mortal bodies," but that you may be fearless in 
encountering the last enemy, and be " made more 



390 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

than conquerors, through him that hath loved you." 
Interesting, indeed, and awful is that period when 
your bodies shall return to the dust from which they 
were taken, and your spirits unto God who gave 
them, And how many are there who, through fear 
of that solemn event, are " all their lifetime subject 
to bondage!'* But, believing communicants, "let not 
your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." 
He whose crucifixion you have been keeping in re- 
membrance, is now reigning in heaven. He is say- 
ing to you, " I am he that liveth, and was dead ; 
and, behold ! I am alive for evermore, and have the 
keys of hell and of death." He requires you to 
commemorate his death, in the anticipation of his 
coming the second time, to deliver you from the 
dishonours of the grave, and to raise you to the 
enjoyment of eternal life. And, you cannot doubt 
that he is faithful and mighty to accomplish all the 
promises in which he bids you now rejoice. Look 
forward, then, to the hour of dissolution with the 
hope which has been kindled at the table of com- 
munion, and which will enlighten the gloom which 
nature and guilt have spread over the grave \ and 
let this blessed ordinance encourage you to pray 
with more fervour, and to labour with more dili- 
gence, that you may be counted worthy as "children 
of the resurrection," and as heirs of immortality. 

I am unwilling to detain you longer, my friends, 
but I cannot conclude without addressing a few 
words, in particular, to those who have for the first 
time remembered Christ at a communion table. 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. SQl 

The step which you have taken, niy young friends, 
is most important. Your situation is truly inte- 
resting. And while we offer up our earnest prayers 
to God in your behalf, we would speak to you the 
word of affectionate counsel and exhortation. You 
have been admitted to the holy ordinance of the 
supper, and I trust you have engaged in it from 
worthy motives, and with suitable dispositions. 
But, O remember that such a service, however 
becoming in itself, and with whatever decency you 
have observed it, is of no avail, if your heart and 
character be not at the same time adorned with 
the substantial graces of Christianity. You may 
have the credit of a good profession — every Sab- 
bath may find you in the house of God, and every 
communion after this at the table of the Lord — 
&nd of your knowledge of the Scriptures we may 
have no doubt, and of your reputation we may be 
able to say nothing that is unfavourable, yet if, with 
all this, you be not conscious of a renewed mind, 
and if you be not cherishing the spirit of real per- 
sonal religion, every thing that you have of outward 
sanctity is but as " sounding brass and a tinkling 
cymbal." Let me beseech you, then, not to rest 
satisfied with the mere name and appearance of 
communicants. This will never do in the sight 
of God, and it will never carry you to heaven. 
Be it your great concern to be Christians in deed 
and in truth — to experience the power of the gos- 
pel— -to possess in reality that faith, and love, and 
penitence, and purity which you were presumed 



39 c 2 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

to have when you were permitted to " take the cup 
of salvation into your hand, and to call on the name 
of the Lord." Beware of acting* inconsistently with 
the character you have assumed, and the vows that 
you have made. Be steady in your attachment to 
the great and merciful Redeemer. Persevere in 
the path of righteousness in which he has com- 
manded, and you yourselves have engaged, to walk. 
And show, by the excellence of your whole deport- 
ment, that you " have been with Jesus," and that 
you have learned of Him who was " holy, and harm- 
less, and u ii denied, and separate from sinners." 
In the world to which you are now to return, you 
will meet with many trials and temptations. - O it 
is a vain and wicked, a deceitful and ensnaring 
world ; and if you surrender yourselves to its 
dominion, or conform to its maxims and its man- 
ners, it will speedily efface every serious impression 
from your minds, and carry you back to the pollu- 
tions from which you had escaped, and make your 
last state worse than the first. Fly, then, from 
those scenes of vain amusement — taste not of those 
unhallowed pleasures— be not entangled by those 
sordid pursuits by which it would steal away your 
affections from him who loved you to the death, 
and make you forfeit the glories of an immortal 
crown. Say not that this is hard doctrine : it is a 
doctrine whose truth you this day acknowledged, 
in the exercise of faith and gratitude, when you 
drank the memorial of that blood, which was shed 
upon the cross to redeem you from the power, and 



EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 3Q3 

the conversation, and the bondage of this present 
evil world. Listen not to those who will tell you 
that this is melancholy advice — that it is unsuitable 
to your period of life— that you need not be afraid 
to mingle, as they do, in all the gaieties of fashion, 
and, like them, to forget your cares and your sor- 
rows for a season in the gratifications of sense and 
of time. They who address to you such delusive 
language feel not for your spiritual well-being — 
they have learned nothing in the school of Christ — 
they have never been at the foot of the cross — they 
are themselves walking " in the broad way that lead- 
eth to destruction," and would have you to be the 
companions of their guilt and of their ruin. But 
from counsel and example like theirs, you must 
turn away ; and to all their solicitations you may 
reply, by asking if they will die for you, and if they 
will answer for you on the judgment of the great 
day. No, my young friends, listen not to them — 
but listen to your Saviour, who says, " love not the 
world," and who moreover calls you " to glory and 
to virtue." Consider what he suffered to raise your 
views and your hopes from earth to heaven. And 
remember allyour obligations to " set your affections 
on those things which are above, where henowsit- 
teth at the right hand of God." Young though you 
be, yet recollect the shortness and uncertainty of 
life, and pass through the wilderness as strangers 
and pilgrims and travellers to a better country. An- 
ticipate the hour of your departure. Keep eternity 
constantly in your view. And let the prospect of 



394 EXHORTATION AFTER THE COMMUNION. 

the future, as well as the remembrance of the past, 
make you stedfast in the faith, and diligent in the 
work of the Lord. And conscious of your own 
weakness, lean upon that Almighty arm of your 
Redeemer. Pray for the grace that you need. And 
let " the hope which enter eth into that within the 
vail, whither the forerunner is for you entered," 
cheer you amidst all the distresses, and animate you 
amidst all the labours of your Christian pilgrimage. 

" Now, unto Him that is able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless before the pre- 
sence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only 
wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, domi- 
nion and power, both now and ever. Amen*" 



395 



SERMON XVII. 



SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 

JEREM. viii. 22. 

" Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why 
then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered ?" 

These words originally referred to the desolation 
and misery brought by the Chaldean invasion upon 
the Jews, on account of their wickedness and im- 
penitence. But they may, with great propriety, be 
applied to all whose conduct and circumstances re- 
semble those of the degenerate house of Israel. And 
it is in this application that we intend to consider 
them. The prophet, looking to the sinfulness of 
his countrymen — to their obstinate disobedience — 
and to the judgments which impended over them, 
exclaimed, " Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there 
no physician there ? Why then is not the health of 
the daughter of my people recovered ?" And well 



8 c j6 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. I/. 

may we put the same question, when, casting our 
eyes around us, we see so many in a state of guilt ; 
perversely and pertinaciously continuing in it, in 
spite of all that has been done for their deliverance, 
and consequently exposed to the indignation of God, 
and to punishment throughout eternity. 

I. The first thing to which our attention is here 
called, is the melancholy fact that sin prevails. 

Sin is here, as in other places of Scripture, re- 
presented under the figurative character of a dis- 
ease. And the representation is appropriate and 
striking ; for sin affects the soul much in the same 
way as disease affects the body— producing similar 
disquietudes, and leading to similar consequences. 
It is a derangement of the spiritual frame, by 
which its functions are impeded, its strength en- 
feebled, its comfort impaired, its proper ends coun- 
teracted, and its very existence, as a creature des- 
tined to immortal felicity, endangered or destroyed. 
And every view which can be taken of its nature, 
and extent, and tendency, demonstrates it to be a 
just cause of serious interest and alarm to all who 
are infected with it. 

It is a hereditary disease —not induced by out- 
ward or accidental circumstances, but entailed upon 
us as an attribute of our fallen nature, and cleav- 
ing to us with as much tenacity as if it were a 
part of our original being : — we are " conceived, 
and shapen, and born in sin." 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 397 

It is a pervading- disease — not limited to any one 
portion of our constitution, but dwelling 1 in every 
department of it — influencing its intellectual powers, 
its moral dispositions, its sensitive organs : " the 
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." 

It is a vital and inveterate disease — not touching 
merely the extreme or superficial parts of our sys- 
tem, and resisted in its progress by any inherent 
energies — but corrupting and preying upon our 
inmost soul, and so congenial to all that is within, 
and to all that is around us, as to grow with our 
growth, and strengthen with our strength. 

It is a deceitful disease — not always accompanied 
with those violent and decided symptoms which for- 
bid us to mistake the nature or disregard the pe- 
rils of our condition — but often assuming that gen- 
tle form which allays our apprehensions, and flat- 
ters us with the hopes of recovery. 

It is often withal a painful and harassing disease 
—filling us with dissatisfaction and fear and trem- 
bling — rendering our days gloomy and our nights 
restless — or piercing us with agonies to which we 
can find neither utterance nor relief. 

And, finally, it is a mortal disease — not inflicting 
upon us a momentary pang, and then giving place 
to renovated vigour — but mocking at all human at- 
tempts to throw it off — sooner or later subduing 
us by its resistless power — and consigning us to the 
pains and the terrors of the second death. 

Now, my friends, this disease of sin more or less 
prevails in every one of us : " There is not a just 



398 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 17- 

man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." 
All of us have it by nature, and all of us have it by 
practice. So that whatever is loathsome, or dis- 
tressing*, or fatal in it, must be regarded as attaching 
to every one of the children of men without excep- 
tion. This is the real and unquestionable fact with 
respect to each one of you now hearing me. What- 
ever be the age at which you have arrived — what- 
ever be your rank or condition in life — whatever 
be the opinion which you entertain of yourselves — 
or whatever be the estimation in which you are held 
by others — one and all of you are afflicted with the 
malady of sin. You may exhibit such appearances 
as shall render it a matter of difficulty to detect it ; 
but nevertheless, it exists, and operates, and in some 
shape or other manifests itself to the observer's eye. 
You may fondly imagine that, however much it may 
reign in those around you, it has acquired no ascend- 
ency in your minds, and that you need to appre- 
hend no danger from it — but this is nothing better 
than a vain delusion, and so far from proving that 
you are without sin, shows only that the disease in 
your case has assumed one of its most alarming 
forms, and that it is taking advantage of your insen- 
sibility to accomplish your ruin. You may impose 
upon us, and you may impose upon yourselves, by 
putting forth, in more than ordinary abundance, the 
tokens of spiritual health ; and yet we must de- 
clare, for it is a truth asserted by him who knows 
all things and cannot be deceived, that the leprosy 
of sin is upon your souls — that they cannot pros- 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 8gQ 



per while it is there— and that, if it be not taken 
away, they must die for ever. 

Such, my friends, is the fact. But then, are you 
convinced of it ? Do you acknowledge it ? Or if 
you do, are you sincere in the acknowledgment 
which you make ? I fear that there are too many 
of whom this cannot be said with truth. For if 
they were convinced of it, and if they did acknow- 
ledge it in sincerity, it is impossible that they should 
speak and act with such indifference as they show 
to what is so virulent in its nature, so terrible 
in its aspect, and so desolating in its effects. We 
should expect to see them as anxious at least to g*et 
quit of this evil as they always are to get quit of 
those evils which affect their bodily frame or their 
outward condition. Nay, we should naturally ex- 
pect to find them far more solicitous and active in 
their endeavours to be delivered from such a cala- 
mity, than they could ever be to find deliverance 
from any temporal calamity, however great and 
however frightful it might be. And yet they are not 
moved by it to any serious concern. It does not seem 
to disturb their peace at all. It leads to no anxious 
inquiry as to the means of its mitigation or removal. 
It calls forth no strenuous exertions for that pur- 
pose. They regard and treat it as if it had no ma- 
lignity in it, as if it gave them no present uneasi- 
ness, as. if it would be productive of no positive or 
lasting injury. On the contrary, one might some- 
times suppose, that they mistook it for their chief 



400 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 17- 

good, that they considered it as conducive alike to 
their honour, their safety, and their happiness, so 
fondly and so perseyeringly, do they indulge in every 
species of gratification which can establish its power, 
or contribute to its growth. 

Now, all this is so very unaccountable, it is so 
passing strange that the disease of sin should be uni- 
versally prevalent, — that it should be confessedly 
and undeniably so alarming in its symptoms and so 
destructive in its issue, and that the great majority 
of those who labour under it should nevertheless be 
as contented as if they had nothing to fear from 
its ravages, — that we are tempted to impute their 
conduct to some secret, lurking suspicion, of the 
hopelessness of their case. We might be justified 
in supposing that in their view there is no method 
by which their cure can be effected, that it is there- 
fore unnecessary for them to give themselves any 
trouble about the matter, and that their wisest plan 
is to give way to thoughtlessness, and to live on as 
their passions and inclinations may prompt them. 
But that is a hasty conclusion, if they have come to 
it ; and we cannot allow them to rest in it, without 
endeavouring to convince them that they are labour- 
ing under a perilous delusion. 

II. " Is there no balm in Gilead," no remedy 
by which the disease of sin may be cured ? " Is 
there no physician there," no physician qualified to 
apply the remedy and able to make it effectual ? 

This question is not put by the prophet, as if in- 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 401 

formation were needed and asked. It does not in- 
dicate any ignorance of that about which the in- 
quiry is made. It does not imply the least suspicion 
or doubt respecting the existence, the certainty, 
and the sufficiency of the thing referred to. On 
the contrary, it is to be considered as a peculiarly 
emphatic mode of affirming what it appears to have 
no knowledge nor assurance of, and even as ex- 
pressing wonder that those whom it concerns are 
not perfectly aware of it as a true doctrine or in- 
disputable fact. It intimates, that where the evil of 
sin continues to prevail, it is not for want of means 
by which it may be thoroughly or effectually taken 
away, — that those who remain subject to it must 
account for that unhappy circumstance in some other 
way than by alleging the helplessness of their case — 
that " there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a 
physician there." 

Why, my friends, the whole purpose of the gos- 
pel is to proclaim and to illustrate this great truth ; 
" God has so loved the world as to give his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, may 
not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ is set 
forth as the great Physician of souls. He has been 
appointed to sustain this character, by Him who rules 
supreme in the world of grace, as in the world of 
nature — who has taken compassion on mankind as 
subject to the malady of sin — and to whom the cure 
of that greatest and sorest evil is as easy, as the cure 
of any malady that can afflict the bodily frame. 
This spiritual Physician has not only come in the 

2 D 



4»02 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 17- 

name of Almighty God, but he has come possessed 
of all the qualifications which are requisite to ensure 
his complete success in every case that can possibly 
be submitted to him. He has wisdom to devise 
whatever method may be necessary, for rescuing the 
victims whom he has been sent to deliver. He has 
tenderness and compassion to induce him to do, and 
bestow, and suffer all, whatever it may be, which 
their circumstances require. He has power to con- 
quer every obstacle that would frustrate his exer- 
tions in their behalf, and to render effectual every 
means that may be employed for their recovery. 
And he has all these attributes in an indefinite de- 
gree ; so that he is competent to heal those in whose 
instance the disease has assumed its most inveterate 
form, and even to call them back from the very 
gates of the grave. His blood, shed on Calvary, as 
an atonement, is the grand and sovereign remedy 
by which sinners are restored. And such is its in- 
herent virtue — such is its resistless efficacy, that 
sprinkled on the spirit and the conscience of him 
who is farthest gone in the leprosy of sin, it is ade- 
quate to subdue the strength of the otherwise incu- 
rable malady, to root it out from the deepest re- 
cesses of his nature, to infuse into him all the ele- 
ments of moral health, and to secure for him an 
endless as well as a happy life. If you read the 
word of God and give credit to his testimony re- 
corded in it, you will find that we have a " Phy- 
sician" thus gifted beyond measure, and " a balm" 
thus efficacious beyond the possibility of failure, 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 403 

provided for us by the mercy of God. And not 
only is this truth exhibited to us in the gospel re- 
cord, as one which we must believe simply because it 
is there ; — it is a truth which has been realized in 
the experience of every age, and which meets our 
observation in the case of all the redeemed in hea- 
ven and on earth. 

In the annals of Christianity, we read of many 
who, though sin was preying on their very vitals as 
a deep-seated and mortal distemper, and though 
they were ready to perish, because they had no 
ability to stay or to withstand its progress, yet 
escaped from its destroying power, — felt that it had 
departed from them, manifested all the symptoms 
of renovated vigour, and rejoiced in the active ex- 
ertion of those faculties which had been paralyzed, 
and in the return of those comforts and those hopes 
which seemed to have fled from them for ever. 
And they have testified that this happy change was 
wrought in their condition — because there " is balm 
in Gilead, and because there is a physician there." 

Look around you, and behold in every Christian 
that meets your eye, a demonstration of the same 
important fact. They were once pervaded by the 
plague of sin :— -it poisoned their hearts — it pro- 
strated their strength— it covered them with moral 
pollution — it blasted all their joys, and it threaten- 
ed them with eternal death. But now, the plague 
is removed — their heart is made whole — their 
energy is restored — they are adorned with the 
beauties of holiness — and they are ripening for a 



404 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 17 '• 

blessed immortality. And to what are we to as- 
cribe their altered state ? To what but to this, that 
" there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a phy- 
sician there ?" 

And to what is it owing, that in the Paradise 
above, there is a countless multitude who once 
dwelt in the lazar-house of this wretched world, 
inheriting from their progenitors that foul disease 
which sin introduced into the nature of man, vexed 
with all its painful and loathsome symptoms, yield- 
ing to its encroachments, and nourishing its viru- 
lence, as if it had been their honour and their bliss, 
and amidst the delusive dream that all was well 
with them, sinking down to that perdition in which 
it naturally terminates — to what is it owing, that 
from such a state as this, they are now translated 
into a region, into which " nothing that defileth can 
enter,' 5 of which ' ' the inhabitants never say, they 
are sick, because all their sins are forgiven them," 
where they offend no more, and suffer no more, and 
die no more, but exist in undecaying youth, in un- 
fading bloom, in everlasting felicity ? To what is 
this owing but to the immutable truth, that " there 
is balm in Gilead, and that there is a physician 
there ?" 

Yes, my friends, there is a Saviour for the chief 
of sinners," and he is " able to save them to the 
very uttermost." There is none whose guilt is so 
aggravated that he cannot cancel it — none whose 
heart is so polluted that he cannot cleanse it — none 
whose danger is so imminent that he cannot deli- 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 405 

ver from it — none whose case is so desperate as 
that he cannot bring it to a favourable issue. And 
he is as willing, as he is able, to redeem the guilty 
and the perishing. He has declared his readiness 
to grant redemption to them in its fullest measure. 
He has given proof irresistible of the sincerity of 
his declaration, in the sacrifice of himself which he 
offered upon the cross. And after this marvellous 
act of condescension and love, there cannot be a 
doubt of his earnest, affectionate, longing desire to 
rescue those on whose account he performed it, 
from the fate to which they were doomed, from the 
destruction and misery to which they are exposed. 

But, if Christ be thus able and willing to save 
sinners, why is it that so many are continuing in 
sin — living under its dominion, and dying under its 
curse ? Since there " is balm in Gilead, and since 
there is a physician there, why is not the health of 
the daughter of my people recovered ?" And, 

III. This leads me to state and explain some of 
the causes of such a melancholy phenomenon in the 
history of sinful men. 

1. The first that I would mention is, that many 
sinners are insensible to their need of a spiritual 
physician. 

A man may unconsciously labour under a bodily 
distemper, which is making rapid advances, and 
hastening him on to his grave. Others may see it, 
and lament it, and beseech him to attend to it, and 
to call in medical aid before it be too late. But it 
is all in vain, if he himself do not see the dangers of 



406 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. J#. 

his situation — if he imagine symptoms of health 
where all around perceive symptoms of disease— 
or if any unsoundness - which he does discover and 
acknowledge he deemed by him too trifling to de- 
serve notice or to excite alarm. Then of course, 
he refuses to put himself under the care of those 
who have skill to cure him ; he will not listen to 
their advice : his case becomes hopeless, and ere 
long* he dies, 

Thus it is with thousands infected with the dis- 
ease of sin. It is a sad but indisputable fact, that 
sin cleaves to them as a mortal disease. But we 
cannot convince them of the fact. They shut their 
eyes against all the light by which they might be 
made aware of the perils and the horrors of their 
condition. They repel every argument by which 
we would convince them that they are practising a 
delusion upon themselves. They palliate or ex- 
plain away all the circumstances by which we would 
prove that guilt does attach to them. And they 
perhaps smile at the anxieties we feel, and at the 
fears we express on their account, as chimerical and 
vain. And amidst so much security, and ease, and 
self-complacency, what is it to them that there is 
4 ' balm in Gilead, and a physician there ?" And 
what can it avail that we speak of Christ to them as 
a Saviour, and beseech them to have recourse to his 
grace and power ? They perceive no attraction in 
the most interesting exhibitions of him that we can 
lay before them ; no meaning, so far as they are 
concerned, in all that we say of his ability to heal ; 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 407 

no suitableness in his peculiar qualifications to what 
they consider to be their real situation ; no neces- 
sity to take counsel of him, to look to him, or to 
think about him. In such a state of mind we can- 
not expect them to pat themselves into the hands 
of Christ, or to submit to the treatment by which 
he would save them. And hence it is that though 
the healing " balm" is within their reach, and 
though the omnipotent " Physician" is ready to ad- 
minister it, they are as far from safety as if every 
avenue to either were closed. Hence it is that all 
our entreaties are heard by them with indifference, 
or rejected with disdain. Hence it is that they go 
on to sin yet more and more, that every feature 
of their case assumes a more frightful complexion, 
and that they ultimately perish in their iniquities. 
O that they were wise ! that they would but con- 
sider ! that they would open their eyes to the light 
of truth ! that they would cease to flatter themselves 
with the thought of peace and safety, when destruc- 
tion is so evidently coming upon them, when 
there will be no means of escaping from it ! May 
the Lord himself bring them speedily and effectually 
to a sense of their danger, and dispose them to give 
a cordial welcome, and to lend a delighted ear to 
the glad tidings that there is " balm in Gilead, and 
that there is a physician there !" 

2. But, secondly, we may mention as another 
reason why sinners are not saved, or have not their 
spiritual health restored, that there are many 
who, though aware in some measure of the disease 



408 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 17. 



of sin, of its inveteracy and of its danger, and not 
unconvinced of the necessity of applying to Him who 
alone can save them from its power and consequen- 
ces, are yet indisposed from doing so, by careless- 
ness, or procrastination, or dislike to the remedies 
which they know will be prescribed. 

A person labouring under a bodily distemper 
may be sensible of it, — he may sincerely wish to 
have it removed, — he may know the individual who 
proposes to accomplish his cure, and believe him to 
be adequate to the task, and he may be resolved to 
be at some time or other indebted to his skill for 
recovery ; and yet through the influence of an easy 
temper, from the habit of delaying what is ur- 
gent and important, and by reason of his aversion 
to the bitter draught that he must take, to the pain- 
ful operation that he must undergo, to the many 
sacrifices of self-indulgence to which he must necessa- 
rily submit, he neglects to send for the physician, 
and to follow his needful advice, and so he falls into 
the grave. 

And thus it is with a multitude of sinners. They 
feel and they admit that sin prevails in them, — that 
it is consuming the life's blood of their souls, — that 
if it be not taken away it must terminate in a fatal 
result. They allow that Christ is divinely appoint- 
ed, and that he is every way qualified to accomplish 
their deliverance. And it is their wish and their 
purpose to commit themselves to his care, that he 
may cleanse them, and heal them, and bid them 
live. But then there is a listlessness about them 

3 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 409 

which prevents their minds from yielding freely, 
and fully, and eagerly, to the impressions that have 
been produced by a view of their danger on the 
one hand, and of the means of escape on the other. 
That which has been emphatically called the " thief 
of time," besets and deludes them, and day after 
day, and year after year steals on, leaving them con- 
tented with knowing how diseased they are, and 
how they can be healed, and determined withal to 
embrace a convenient season for resorting to the 
mercy and the might of the Redeemer. Thus they 
linger on in sin and in peril, because they cannot 
bring themselves to submit to all that, in his wisdom, 
he must require them to do and to become — to re- 
nounce the gratifications in which they have been 
fondly delighting — to mortify their inordinate af- 
fections, — to " cut off a right hand or to pluck out 
a right eye," — to be no longer slothful, but to be ac- 
tive in the exercises of piety and in the labours of 
righteousness, — and to have their whole system 
under such strict government, and such unceasing 
control, as that they shall never wilfully give way to 
a corrupt inclination, and never wilfully violate a di- 
vine commandment. And thus it happens that though 
they are satisfied that there is " no soundness in 
them, and though they have learned that " there is 
balm in Gilead, and that there is a physician there," 
the health of their souls is not ' ' recovered ; M they 
perversely continue to feed the disease which, in its 
simplest form, is sufficient to destroy them ; every 
successive moment that they spend without apply- 



410 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 1J. 

ing to Christ comes to them with accumulated ha- 
zard ; the very supineness and unconcern which at 
first kept them away from him, increase with the 
growing- perils of their condition, and before they 
have bestirred themselves to do what should never 
have been left undone, the mortal agony arrives, 
and then for them there is " no balm in Gilead, and 
no physician there. 5 ' 

O let nie entreat such of you as recognise, in the 
mirror I have now heldup,atrue resemblance of your- 
selves, to reflect seriously on what you are, and on 
what must befal you, if you persist in such a course. 
It is an awful thing to die ; but it is infinitely more 
awful to die in your sins ; and that you may avoid 
that dread consummation, be entreated to flee to 
Christ, by whom, and by whom alone, it can be sure- 
ly and effectually averted. Act upon your con- 
victions of your helplessness as sinners, and of the 
necessity of divine aid — act upon these convic- 
tions with firmness and decision — give energy to 
your purpose by remembering that in doing so 
is involved not merely your present comfort, but 
your everlasting welfare. Do not allow your- 
selves to be cheated into delay : The disease of sin, 
like many bodily diseases, may prove fatal in a mo- 
ment ; and, even though no such sudden termina- 
tion should take place, yet, the longer you procras- 
tinate, and the more opportunities you allow to pass 
unimproved, the more disinclined will you be to seek 
after Christ, and the more difficult will you find it 
to surrender yourselves to his guidance. Nor be 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 411 

deterred or discouraged by the nature of his pre- 
scriptions. Enough for you, who must otherwise 
die eternally, to know, that the remedy which he 
provides is effectual — that he demands nothing from 
you but what it is your duty and your interest to 
render cheerfully — that support, and comfort, and 
encouragement, will accompany it, in adequate sup- 
ply and in abundant measure— that your spiritual 
health being recovered, you will have ample recom- 
pense in its returning joys, for all that you may 
have suffered or sacrificed in the pursuit — and that 
you will at length be admitted where sin cannot en- 
ter, and where, amidst the unfettered and delighted 
employment of the powers which were rescued from 
its deadly grasp, it will be one of your gladdest and 
most grateful recollections, that there was " balm 
in Gilead, and that there was a physician there." 

3. Once more, sinners are not saved, or have not 
their spiritual health recovered, because they will 
not take the remedy simply and submissively as it is 
administered by Christ. 

A man who is afflicted with bodily disease may 
be quite sensible that his danger is great, and he 
may call in a physician in whom he confides, and 
he may ask him to prescribe for him. But if he 
will follow only a part of the advice that is given 
him — if he insist upon practising at the same time 
upon himself— if, from ignorance, or pride, or per- 
versity, or caprice, he be determined to have a large 
share in the merit of any cure that may be effected — 

his disease may be made worse instead of being mi- 

5 



412 SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. SER. 17* 

tigated, and its fatal issue may be rendered speedier 
and more certain, instead of being retarded or 
averted. 

In like manner, how many are there labouring 
under the disease of sin, who feel something like a 
sincere and anxious desire to be delivered from it, 
and who apply to Christ for his assistance in ac- 
complishing the object of their wishes ; but who 
will not submit to his skill nor receive his help, in 
the way that he is pleased to exercise the one, and 
to impart the other ! They put their own ignorance 
on a level with his wisdom — their own weakness 
with his power — their own depravity with his me- 
rit. And thus they defeat the purpose of all that 
he offers to do for them. They counteract his 
saving work. They render fruitless the remedies 
that he prescribes. They disobey, and dishonour, 
and provoke him. In the mean time sin retains its 
deadly hold of their heart, and grows and strength- 
ens in its influence, as they proceed in their infa- 
tuated course : And, at last, though the healing 
" balm 55 is beside them, and though the great " Phy- 
sician 55 seems to be their refuge and their hope, they 
languish, and die, and pass from this world to " lift 
up their eyes in hell, being in torment. 55 

O let not such infatuation impose upon any of you, 
and prevent you from receiving that relief which 
you so absolutely need, and which you profess so 
earnest a desire to obtain. Give yourselves up im- 
plicitly to the dictates of Christ. He is able to cure 
you j and he neither needs your help, nor will he 



SER. 17. SPIRITUAL DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 413 

accept of it. He must have the entire honour of 
your deliverance, or he will do nothing" for you at 
all. Trust in him as one who both can and will 
make you whole — who alone is invested with the 
power of bestowing upon you that inestimable and 
necessary blessing- — and in whose hands you are 
sure of being- restored to spiritual health here, and 
of being raised to immortal life hereafter. And 
being thus indebted to him for salvation from the 
foulest calamity that can distress or deform or de- 
grade your nature, see that you devote your reno- 
vated powers, your purified affections, your " whole 
soul, body, and spirit," to his service and praise. 
And when you behold others still afflicted with it, 
and either ignorant or careless of the means by 
which they may be rescued from it, take pity on 
them as they are thus " lying in their blood," and 
bear your practical testimony, and labour to draw 
their earnest attention, to this blessed truth, that 
their case is not hopeless, unless they themselves 
make it so, for that you have found it realized in 
your happy experience, that " there is balm in 
Gilead, and that there is a physician there." 



414 



SERMON XVIIL 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 

PSALM XXXIX. 9- 
" I was dumb, 1 opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it. ,y 

When David composed this Psalm, he was evident- 
ly labouring under some heavy affliction. What that 
was, we are not informed. But whatever it may have 
been, it seems to have borne hard upon his spirit ; 
for he says respecting it, "I am consumed by the 
blow of thine hand/' Nevertheless, he did not 
murmur or complain under the pressure of his dis- 
tress. He thought of the character, and the pro- 
vidence, and the purposes of that great Being, to 
whose appointment he traced it, and under whose 
government he suffered. And influenced by the 
considerations which these suggested, as well as 
upheld by the grace for which he earnestly prayed, 
he repressed every mutinous feeling, and cherished 
the sentiments, and uttered the language, of a be- 



SER. IS. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



415 



coming resignation. He looked up to God and 
said " I was dumb, I opened not my mouth ; be- 
cause tliou didst it." 

This was the conduct of David. But it is to be 
feared that there are many of us, who, though 
placed in his circumstances, do not imitate his ex- 
ample; that with some, the virtue which he thus 
exhibited is not maintained at all ; and that with 
others, it is maintained but partially and reluctant- 
ly ; that where the words of impatience are re- 
strained from considerations of decency, the feeling 
of it is allowed to predominate ; and that even 
where there is a cordial desire, and an earnest en- 
deavour, to submit to the will of God, this submis- 
sion is not practised with that cheerfulness, nor at- 
tended with that satisfaction which every true Chris- 
tian will be anxious to experience. 

To provide against this evil, there are two things 
that must be principally attended to. In the first 
place, we must study to be the real disciples of 
Christ. For if we be only nominally so, we are 
destitute of those principles, without which, we can 
neither see the reasonableness, nor feel the work- 
ings of resignation. This grace has, on that sup- 
position, nothing either to produce or to support it 
in our hearts. When all goes well with us, we 
may talk about it, and inculcate it upon others, and 
blame or pity those by whom it is not displayed. 
But when the day of our own probation comes, we 
have nothing to hold by or lean upon : We have 
no sense of an interest in the favour of Him by 



416 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. SER. 18. 



whom we are tried, no habitual confidence in the 
wisdom and mercy of his dealings with us, no well 
grounded expectation of being compensated for the 
possessions and enjoyments of which we are de- 
prived ; and therefore, we cannot freely or sincere- 
ly say that we are resigned, because the Lord has 
done it. And, in the second place, if we be the 
real disciples of Christ, we must have our minds 
turned to those doctrines, and habituated to those 
exercises of religion, which may be considered as 
affording the appropriate grounds of submission 
amidst the calamities of life. Unless we have fre- 
quent recourse to these — unless we live under their 
perpetual influence — unless we wear them con- 
stantly as defensive armour against the adversities 
by which we are assailed- — it is obvious that when 
these come upon us, as they often do, unexpected- 
ly and severely, we are not prepared to meet them ; 
our fortitude is apt to fail ; and though we have 
then, as we have always, access to the throne of 
grace, yet our application there cannot be supposed 
to have the same fervency, or the same effect, as if 
we had gone with those pious impressions, rivetted 
on our minds, and familiar to our thoughts, by 
which we are constrained to say in the words and 
spirit of the text, " I was dumb, I opened not my 
mouth ; because thou didst it." 

Let us now attend shortly to some of those con- 
siderations which should encourage us to adopt this 
language in its full and genuine import. 

1. In the first place, when God visits us with 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 417 



painful bereavements, we ought to be resigned, be- 
cause he only takes away what is his own. 

He is sole and absolute proprietor of the uni- 
verse. It is impossible, in the very nature of things, 
that he should alienate any, the minutest, part of 
it. And, consequently, if he has bestowed any 
blessing upon us, there is necessarily attached to 
the gift this condition, that being still his own, he 
may recall it, at whatever time, and in whatever 
way he pleases. Accordingly, there is not a mo- 
ment that we can say justly of any of the com- 
forts of life, " This is ours without admitting 
at the same time that, in perfect rectitude, it may 
be taken from us, whenever it seems good to Him 
by whom it was originally given. He might in- 
deed promise the perpetuity of the boon which 
he confers ; and in that case his faithfulness would 
be a sure and unfailing guarantee, that we should 
not be deprived of it. But this does not apply 
to any of the good things of a present world. 
Every one of these is, unquestionably, limited. 
It is conveyed to us for a particular purpose ; 
and whenever it has fulfilled that purpose, or 
when, through our perversity, it has ceased to an- 
swer its purpose, or when the removal of it would 
accomplish a wiser or a better purpose, it can be 
no longer continued with us. Not that God will 
act from any arbitrary or capricious motive. His 
conduct must be always dictated and governed 
by the laws of infinite perfection. But it is still 
true that all our temporal mercies are at his so- 

2 E 



418 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



SER. 18. 



vereign disposal ; and that, without any violation 
of the greatness and glory of his character, he may 
give them, and take them away, and restore them, 
and resume them again, according to his good plea- 
sure. In all this there is no injustice on his part ; 
for may He not " do what he will with his own ?" 
and there should be no disappointment on ours ; 
for had we reflected, as we ought, on the nature of 
our condition as his dependent creatures, we must 
have perceived that all the blessings we enjoy are 
revocable and uncertain, and we should, there- 
fore, have been prepared to part with them, when- 
ever it might be so ordered by the inscrutable coun- 
sels of his providence. Instead, therefore, of feel- 
ing that any injury has been done us, when we are 
deprived even of those comforts which are dearest 
to us, and on whose continuance and security we 
reckoned with most confidence — instead of thus 
sinning and charging God foolishly — it becomes us 
to be grateful to him that we have possessed them 
so long, and in such measure — to condemn our- 
selves for having regarded them too much as our 
own absolute property — and, henceforward, to re- 
ceive, and to hold, every blessing that may be put 
into our lot, with the conviction that it is still the 
Lord's, and that he will do nothing but what is 
right, when he sees proper to recall it either in part 
or altogether. 

We cannot help, indeed, forming attachments to 
earthly objects : this is not only natural, but sub- 
servient to our duty, and conducive to our happi- 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



419 



ness. And there is nothing, either in reason or 
in religion, which forhids us to feel and to cherish 
such attachments, when we do not thereby devote 
to the creature what should be devoted to the Crea- 
tor, and lay up for ourselves a store of future dis- 
appointment and pain. But surely it is wise to 
have them qualified and subdued, by the habitual 
persuasion, that they are liable to be dissolved, not 
by what is called accident — not by the malice or 
violence of our fellow-men — not by the power of 
a blind and irresistible fate, but by the will of Him 
who "ruleth over all and who, when he takes from 
us the objects of our affection, only takes from us 
what belongs to himself by divine inalienable right. 
And if we be accustomed to take this view of the 
subject, if we not only speculatively assent to it 
as an abstract truth, but have it as a part of our 
practical creed, and constantly realize its truth, and 
lay our account with its exemplification, in our per- 
sonal experience, it will, without impairing one ge- 
nerous or useful sentiment, prevent us from indulg- 
ing in fretfulness, or murmuring under our priva- 
tions, and will lead us to surrender any comfort 
whatever, and to make the surrender with patience 
and readiness into the hands of God, from whom we 
at first received it, who in kindness has lent it to us 
for the passing day, or for the passing year, and who 
is as righteous in taking back, as he was merciful in 
bestowing the gift whose loss we deplore. 

2. In the second place, we should not open our 
mouth with complaints when we are visited with 

l 



420 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



SER. 18. 



painful bereavements, but observe the silence of 
resignation, because it is God who inflicts them, 
and the same God accompanies them with consola- 
tion and support. 

In our very darkest and deepest afflictions of a 
temporal kind, it is seldom, if indeed ever, that 
we are abandoned to unmixed, and unalleviated 
suffering. To whatever deprivations we are sub- 
jected, there are always some comforts left behind, 
or some new comforts conveyed to us \ which, if 
they do not compensate what has been taken from 
us, tend at least to diminish the extent and severity 
of the loss. This, indeed, may not be perceived 
or felt at the very moment that any calamity has 
overtaken us. But when our grief has so far sub- 
sided, as to allow us to form a calm and correct 
estimate of our situation, we shall be sensible that 
there remains to us much more of the good things 
of this life, than we at first imagined or were will- 
ing to allow. We may have lost a friend, but some 
are still left to cheer us, or others are raised up for 
our comfort in adversity. Our worldly substance 
may have failed ; but health is still spared, and op- 
portunities are still provided, by which we may 
recover our independence and renew our usefulness. 
One favourite speculation may have come to no- 
thing, but another has succeeded. Our good name 
may have been injured by the tongue of slander, 
but we have the means of vindicating what has been 
thus traduced, and of either living down the calum- 
ny, or exposing its injustice and malevolence. We 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



421 



look on the one hand, and we see the darkness of 
adversity approaching us : but we look on the other, 
and behold the light of joy is springing up to cheer 
our hearts, and chase away our sorrows. And has 
it not often actually happened in the case of the af- 
flicted, that " their latter end," like that of Job, has 
been " much more than their beginning ?" In all 
this there is something that is well fitted to inspire us 
with patience and contentment. Whatever we suf- 
fer is much less, and whatever we enjoy is much 
more, than we deserve. Considering that we are 
sinners, and that the best of us are great sinners, 
we may well ask, " shall we receive good at the 
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil also ?" 
And we may well wonder that he has given us so 
much of the one, and laid upon us so little of the 
other. Nor is there a blessing of which we are al- 
lowed to partake, that does not intimate to us the 
benignity of Him by whom we are afflicted, and 
give us the assurance that, notwithstanding all that 
he is causing us to suffer, he has not abandoned us 
to destitution and pain, but has much kindness in 
store for us, if we will but listen to his warning 
voice, and "turn our feet unto his testimonies." 

But He gives us consolation and support of a spi- 
ritual kind, far more precious and far more effica- 
cious still. Let our temporal privations be as nu- 
merous and as severe as they may, still there are 
sources of comfort which are not only accessible to 
us, but to which we are invited, and from which 
we may derive all that is needful to sustain our 



4m 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. SER. 18. 



minds. We have the Bible, containing doctrines 
that make us acquainted with that system of admi- 
nistration under which we are placed, and promises 
to excite and animate our hopes, and counsels to 
direct our steps in the most rugged paths that we 
have to tread, and examples to bring before us, in 
all its excellence and all its power, the virtue of 
suffering patience. We have " the throne of grace," 
where we may go, in the confidence of faith, to un- 
bosom our griefs to our heavenly Father, to com- 
mit ourselves to his mercy and protection, and to 
obtain " the help" that he has promised to send us 
in " our time of need." We have the Holy Spi- 
rit, who is the comforter of the people of God in 
the season of distress, and who will communicate 
to us those secret, but real and powerful influences, 
which must avail to enlighten us in our thickest 
darkness, and to give us that fortitude which no 
dangers can appal, and no calamities subdue. And 
we have all the various ordinances of religion, by 
mingling in which our thoughts are solemnly di- 
rected to the glad tidings of the gospel ; and our 
spirits refreshed from time to time with the exer- 
cises of devotion ; and our sorrows soothed by the 
sympathies of the church ; and our souls brought 
near to him who is the " Father of mercies," and 
the " God of all consolation ;" and our views car- 
ried forward to the rest and peace and sinlessness 
and joy of that kingdom which He " has prepared 
for us from the foundation of the world." 

And having such alleviations and such comforts 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



as these, it would ill become us to allow our feel- 
ings to rebel against their compassionate author, 
because he is pleased in his wise and inscrutable 
providence to deprive us of blessings which we 
have no title to retain, and to inflict upon us suf- 
ferings, which it must be our interest to bear. Let 
us rather praise him that he touches us with such a 
lenient hand ; let us sing of his mercy, while we 
are enduring his judgments ; let our meditations be 
upon the blessings that are left us, while our hearts 
are troubled by the departure of what was dear to 
us ; and looking to the consolations which God 
imparts, as well as to the sorrows which we feel, 
and regarding him as the fountain from which both 
proceed, let our feelings, our language, and our 
conduct, be those of the Psalmist, as expressed in 
the words of our text, " I was dumb, I opened not 
my mouth ; because thou didst it." 

3. In the third place, we should be resigned to 
the will of God when he afflicts us, because affliction 
is for our good. 

To mere worldly persons there is nothing good 
but that which gives them much pleasure, unac- 
companied by pain ; which gratifies their senses ; 
which advances their temporal prosperity; which 
raises them to honour, to wealth, to influence ; and 
which permits them to enjoy all these without in- 
terruption or annoyance. But to true Christians, 
that, and that alone is good, whatever it may be, 
which promotes their spiritual and immortal inte- 
rests ; which tends to make them wiser and better ; 



424 CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. SER. 18. 

which strengthens their religious principles, and 
improves their moral character ; which renders 
them faithful servants of God here, and prepares 
them for the glories of his presence hereafter. And 
in this view, we must be satisfied, from many con- 
siderations, that the trials and distresses in which 
we are involved, have for their great and ultimate 
object, our essential welfare. What is the charac- 
ter of that Being who appoints them, or who per- 
mits them to befall us ? He is a God of infinite 
mercy — who can have no pleasure in our sufferings 
— who therefore does not 4 'afflict us willingly" — and 
whose only design must be to render us more holy 
and more happy. And while his goodness prompts 
him to form and to pursue this purpose respecting 
us, he prosecutes and accomplishes it by means of 
affliction, because his unerring wisdom selects that 
as the fittest, and most powerful, and most efficient, 
method of securing what he benevolently intends. 
Nor is it difficult to see the propriety and suit- 
ableness of this part of his plan, which, however, 
must be perfect, whether we can comprehend it 
or not. It is evidently called for by the state of 
our nature, and the circumstances of our condi- 
tion. Our nature is corrupted ; and, under the 
influence of this corruption, we are prone to in- 
dulge in sin and to forget the obligations of duty — 
apt to be intoxicated with prosperity, and to consi- 
der this world, when all our wishes are gratified, 
and all our dreams of joy are undisturbed, not as 
pur temporary residence, but as our everlasting 



SER. 18. 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



425 



rest. And our outward circumstances engage so 
much of our attention, and present so many things 
to occupy our thoughts and fascinate our hearts, 
that, if unmingled with any thing that is harsh and 
distasteful to our feelings, we insensibly become the 
very slaves of worldly pursuits and pleasures, and 
continue to live as if we were never to die ; as if 
we had no account to render, no immortality to 
hope for, and no spiritual work to perform. Now, 
this miserable and fatal enchantment is broken by 
affliction. When the comforts which we idolized, 
or on which we doated, are taken from us, this de- 
monstrates them to be unsubstantial and uncertain, 
and unworthy of all the fond regard we paid them. 
We see more than ever the necessity of seeking for 
happiness in the favour of an unchangeable God, 
in the faith of a never-failing Redeemer, in the hope 
of an immortal inheritance. And "setting our af- 
fections on things above," we are led to cultivate, 
with greater diligence, that pious and holy character 
which it is the grand object of the gospel to form, 
and by which we are to be prepared for everlasting 
life. 

And while we draw this conclusion from reason- 
ing on the character of God, and from the nature 
and circumstances of fallen man, it is expressly 
taught and declared in the sacred scriptures. There, 
God is represented as our Father, who, all-wise 
and all-affectionate, does not correct his children 
from caprice, nor from malignity, nor for purposes 
of vengeance — but for their reformation and advan- 



426 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. SER. 18. 



tage, that they may be " partakers of his holiness." 
" No chastening for the present seemeth joyous but 
grievous ; nevertheless, afterwards, it yieldeth the 
peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are 
exercised thereby." And " our light afflictions, 
which are but for a moment, shall work out for us 
a far more exceeding, even an eternal, weight of 
glory." 

The truth of these Scriptures has been realized 
in the experience of thousands. When David said, 
• 6 it is good for me that I have been afflicted," he 
spoke in the name of all the people of God who 
have been rebuked of Him, and have not despised 
his chastening. They have been chosen, perhaps, 
" in the furnace of affliction." They have come out 
of it, purified from the dross of sin. They have 
had their affections detached from the world. They 
have become more heavenly-minded. They have 
been brought back from their wanderings after va- 
nity ; restored to a more intimate communion with 
God ; and taught to love, and to keep, and to de- 
light in, his commandments. He has taken from 
them the children whom they had suffered to usurp 
the throne of their hearts ; and they have been in- 
structed by this painful and salutary rebuke to give 
back to Him that devotedness of affection which 
they had hitherto lavished on the creatures of a day, 
and to be more anxious that they and theirs should 
be inheritors of that " kingdom which cannot be 
moved," than that they should continue to be united 
to one another by those ties which, however strong 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



427 



and however tender, bind them only to the earth 
and keep them far from heaven. He has deprived 
them of their riches: and they have learned, in 
the school of poverty, to lift, to the better and 
more enduring treasures that are on high, that soul 
which had been meanly and ingloriously wedded to 
the paltry treasures of the dust. He has blasted 
their health ; and on the bed of sickness and lan- 
guishing, during wearisome days and nights of rest- 
lessness and pain, they are feeling the emptiness of 
those vain amusements in which they had too long 
and too fondly indulged, and are reading, in this 
leaf of the book of providence, those lessons of hu- 
mility and sobriety and patience which the theatre 
of gay life was but ill calculated to afford, and are 
gradually ripening either for a closer walk with 
God in this weary wilderness, or for the full enjoy- 
ment of his presence in the promised land. He 
has permitted their reputation to be tarnished by 
the breath of calumny ; and, no longer elevated by 
the applauses of erring and deceitful mortals, they 
are now candidates for the honour and the praise 
that come from God, for the testimony of a good 
conscience, and for the approving sentence of their 
Judge at last. 

It is thus that God appoints, or overrules, the 
adversities of life for the benefit of his people, 
converts their afflictions into blessings, and makes 
them at once the tokens of present love, and the 
pledges of future glory. And shall we repine, 
with this great truth pressed upon us, by every 



428 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. SER. 18. 



view of his character, and by all that his word has 
told us ; and by the uniform experience of those who 
have put their trust in him — shall we repine when 
he disappoints our earthly hopes, and puts the cup 
of sorrow into our hand, and even makes us drink 
it to the very dregs ? Shall not we rather kiss the 
rod with which he smites us ? Shall not we be 
disposed to receive all his corrections with patience 
and submission ? And, when the feelings of feeble 
and afflicted nature would prompt us to deprecate 
the sorrows he is laying upon us, shall not we 
still say, " nevertheless, O Lord, not my will, but 
thine be done." " I was dumb, I opened not my 
mouth ; because thou didst it." 

4. There is still another consideration by which 
we ought to be influenced when involved in afflic- 
tion. God who sends it, is entitled to our patient 
acquiescence, our cheerful submission, because at 
the very time that we are suffering under his hand, 
he has in reserve, and is preparing for us, the hap- 
piness of heaven and immortality. 

I need not, my friends, attempt to expatiate on 
the exquisite nature, the absolute certainty, the in- 
finite value, and the eternal duration of that hap- 
piness. We have no adequate description of it to 
give you ; and you are not able to form any ade- 
quate conception of it. Yet you are surely so far 
acquainted with it as to know that it is an attain- 
ment with a view to which no labour, no suffer- 
ing, no discipline can be deemed disproportioned. 
And scripture has expressly said, that " the suffer- 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 429 

ings of a present life are not worthy to be com- 
pared with the glory that shall be revealed." 

Now, with such a prospect before us, would it 
not be foolish, and unbecoming, and inconsistent, 
to murmur at any evils we may have to endure in 
our passage to heaven — to grudge the hardships 
of the wilderness through which our covenant God 
is leading us to the land of promise — to be impa- 
tient amidst the darkness which shall ere long be 
succeeded by the dawn and by the brightness of an 
eternal day ? Do not the soldier, and the mariner, 
and the man of business, submit to many anxieties 
and pains, borne up and animated by the anticipa- 
tions of successful enterprise, and rewarded perse- 
verance ? And shall we be less contented, or less 
resigned to the privations of our lot ; we, who look 
forward with a hope resting on the promise of a faith- 
ful and unchangeable God, to " the crown of life, 
which fadeth not away ?" Every thing in our case 
contributes to inspire us with the temper of the 
Psalmist in its highest and its noblest exercise. Be 
our tribulations what they may, they must soon come 
to a perpetual end, and be succeeded by a joy that is 
ineffable. And not only shall they be succeeded by a 
joy that is ineffable, but they are an essential part 
of that course of discipline which our heavenly Fa- 
ther employs to prepare us for entering into glory. 
So that to be disquieted, and cast down, and made 
impatient, by our afflictions, is to undervalue the 
happiness of the heavenly state — to prefer our pre- 
sent ease to our future salvation, and to arraign the 



430 CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. SER. 18. 

wisdom of that plan by which God is training us 
up for the exercises and the enjoyments of the ce- 
lestial world. Only let us think of our ultimate and 
eternal destiny, as " the children of God by faith 
in Christ Jesus," and of the connexion which it has 
with our sufferings and our conduct in this our 
scene of probation ; and we shall see abundant rea- 
son to cast ourselves upon the good pleasure of him 
who gives to us, and who takes away from us, as 
the God of earth and of heaven, of time and of 
eternity ; and to say, in the words of our text, even 
though we have had sorrow upon sorrow, " I was 
dumb, I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst 
it." 

Those of you who have been visited with severe 
afflictions, would do well to consider how you car- 
ried yourselves in those trying circumstances. If 
you were fretful, and impatient, and complained 
that you were hardly dealt with, this was unworthy 
of your Christian profession, because it was arraign- 
ing the goodness, the wisdom, the justice of God ; 
and you have much reason, therefore, to humble 
yourselves before him, to ask his forgiveness, and 
to be vigilant against the return of such a discon- 
tented, unsubmissive spirit, when you are again 
subjected to disappointment and distress. And, 
even though you have not gone the length of utter- 
ing the language of complaint — though you have 
been literally silent, and appeared to bow before the 
dispensations which befell you,— yet, if this were 
owing merely to constitutional apathy — or if it were 



SER. 18. 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



431 



produced by engaging either in the business or amuse- 
ments of the world — or if it proceeded from causes 
unconnected with the faith of the gospel, — on any 
of these suppositions, there was no real resignation 
to the divine will — nothing of the gracious senti- 
ment which is intimated in the text — nothing, in 
short, but a substitution of something of your own 
for that which acknowledges God ; and, therefore, 
you have, in this case also, reason to confess your 
unworthiness to him, and to pray for remission, 
and to be solicitous that your mind may be so re- 
newed, and so regulated, and so influenced, as that, 
in every future time of trouble, your submission 
may result from Christian principle and be quickened 
by Christian hope, and that you may feel what the 
Psalmist felt, when you say what he said, — " I was 
dumb, I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it." 

Let me now address myself more particularly 
to the younger part of my audience. You have 
not yet, perhaps, had many trials to distress you ; 
but the Bible tells you, that " man is born to 
trouble, as the sparks fly upward :" and though 
every thing wear a gay and smiling aspect around 
you, you know not how soon the gloom of sorrow 
may overcast all your prospects. " Remember, then, 
your Creator in the days of your youth, before the 
years draw nigh in which you shall say that you 
have no pleasure in them." Prepare, even now, for 
the difficulties, and misfortunes, and evils of ad- 
vancing life. And recollect, that your best and 



432 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



SER. 18. 



only preparation consists in your being at peace 
with God — in acquainting yourselves with him— in 
having- a deep-seated faith in all the truths and pro- 
mises of his word — in cultivating an experimental 
recognition of the perfect excellence of every part 
of his character and his administration — and in hold- 
ing habitual communion with him, both as the hear- 
er of prayer, and as the God of comfort. If you 
thus live by faith in God and in Christ, you are 
ready for whatever trials and tribulations await you. 
And being " reconciled to God by the death of his 
Son," and confiding in his paternal management of 
all that concerns you, and tracing every event that 
befalls you to his will and to his doing, and satisfied 
that he orders all things wisely and well, and will 
make them work together for your present and your 
eternal good, — resignation will become the prevail- 
ing temper of your souls. You will not only be 
patient when adversity comes, but you will be en- 
abled to rejoice in it. And thus, while it will se- 
cure your peace amidst the most formidable ills of 
life, it will fit you for encountering the agonies and 
the terrors of death, and be instrumental in prepar- 
ing you for entering that happy world where those 
dwell who have " come through much tribulation, 
and have washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb." 

And, as it is the gospel which not only inculcates 
this grace, but holds out the comforts and the views 
by which it is formed and cherished, let the gospel 

3 



SER. 18. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



433 



be precious in our regard. Let us cling to it in 
every dark and distressful hour, for our own sup- 
port. And let us be anxious that it may go forth, 
in all its blessings, and in all its power, among the 
sinful and sorrowing children of mortality. 



484 



SERMON XIX. 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 

2 CORINTHIANS VI, 2. 

4< Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of 

Salvation." 

In the context, the apostle represents himself, and 
his fellow-labourers in the ministry, as working to- 
gether for promoting and accomplishing the salva- 
tion of sinners. He entreats those to whom they 
address themselves not to frustrate their object — 
not to reject the message of reconciliation which 
they were commissioned to publish and to urge — 
not to despise or to refuse that which is the appoint- 
ed provision of divine mercy for redeeming guilty 
souls from misery and ruin. To enforce this ex- 
hortation, the apostle refers to a passage in Isaiah, 
in which God promises to give the Gentiles to the 
Messiah, as a reward of his mediatorial undertak- 



SER. 19. 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



435 



ing. " I have heard thee in a time accepted, and 
in the day of salvation have I succoured thee." 
And, as this promise is made to Christ, the apostle 
extends its application to all who live under the 
gospel dispensation ; reminding them, that, even 
under that dispensation of grace and mercy, a li- 
mited period is fixed for the return of sinners unto 
God, and that there is danger in delaying, for the 
shortest time, to yield to that beseeching voice which 
calls on sinners to be reconciled and to live. It is 
in this point of view that we are now to consider 
the language of the text, — " Behold, now is the ac- 
cepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." 

It is the wish of most men to obtain salvation ; 
and therefore, it is their resolution that, at some 
time or other, they will repent. They have not 
yet forsaken their sins ; they have not yet em- 
braced the Saviour whom God has sent ; nor is it 
just at this instant that the work is to be under- 
taken. They are engaged in some important busi- 
ness which requires all their attention. They have 
met with some worldly disaster which has disturb- 
ed their thoughts. They are in pursuit of some 
pleasure which is not very consistent with a change 
to the better. They feel an indolence of temper 
which indisposes them for mental exertion. Or 
they cannot spare as much time from their ordin- 
ary avocations as will be sufficient for the purpose. 
Some object or another engages them at present, 
and furnishes them with a pretext for delay- 
But they are still determined not to let life 



456 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SEK. 19. 



pass away without doing what they are sensible 
must be done if they would be saved. They will 
not always be so much employed with other things 
as to prevent them from attending to the one thing 
needful. Some favourable opportunity will occur, 
of which thev will not fail to take immediate ad- 
vantage. If none should occur of itself, they will 
create one, and force a few passing hours into their 
service. No difficulty, no opposition, no tempta- 
tion, shall then frustrate their design. And if, con- 
trary to their expectation, any thing of this kind 
should take place, one alternative still remains, 
which they will most unquestionably adopt. No- 
thing shall hinder them from making their peace 
with God when they are going to die. Die they 
must ; and at that interesting period, the best fitted, 
as they imagine, for religious exercises and moral 
reformation, no circumstance surely can intervene 
to prevent them from accomplishing that which 
they had always wished, and always intended to ac- 
complish. Whatever they have been in times past, 
whatever they now are, whatever they may con- 
tinue to be, they will at least leave the world in a 
state of due preparation for another and a better. 

Thus lulled into security by their resolutions of 
future amendment, thus perfectly satisfied that they 
have nothing to fear because they are determined 
to repent, they go on to indulge themselves in all 
the desires of a corrupted heart, and in all the 
practices of an evil world — to disregard the secret 
remonstrances of conscience, to despise the warn- 



SER. 19* 



THE ACCEPTED T I M E 



437 



ings and invitations of the word of God, to trample 
on the blood of Christ, and to do despite unto the 
Spirit of grace. They dream not of the ten thou- 
sand circumstances which may occur to render a 
change of character unattainable. They reason with 
themselves as if repentance were the easiest thing 
which they can attempt, as if all its means were obe- 
dient to their control, or as if Providence were to 
work miracles to preserve them from the common 
accidents of life, and the common infirmities of na- 
ture, that their feast of criminal pleasure may suffer 
no interruption, and that they may be saved, though 
they have industriously laboured to destroy their 
souls. Or if some thought of danger should in- 
trude, if something should happen to excite a sus- 
picion that their latter end may find them at once 
unprepared and incapable of preparing for eternity, 
they banish the unwelcome supposition by entering 
into a calculation of chances, which, as may be 
readily imagined, always bends to their passions, 
and terminates in conformity to the secret bias of 
their wills. They flatter themselves with the per- 
suasion which originally deluded them, and which 
deludes them still, that they wish— that they not 
only wish but intend — that they not only intend 
but resolve, to amend before they go off the stage 
of life, let that event take place when it will and as 
it may. And, therefore, every allurement prevails 
as soon as it presents itself, and religion is neglect- 
ed, habitually neglected, as a thing of no immediate 
concern, or regarded only as the employment of a 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SEK. 19. 



future day. In this manner many go on sinning 
and resolving, and sinning and resolving still, till at 
last they die as they had lived, enemies to God, 
children of wrath and heirs of hell. 

Now, to be convinced of the unreasonableness 
and folly, the guilt and danger of this conduct, con- 
sider, 

I. In the first place, the nature of repentance it- 
self, and the commandment of God concerning it. 

What is repentance ? It is turning from sin to 
holiness ; from sin, which is the shame and reproach 
of our nature, to holiness which is its honour and 
its glory ; from sin, which is the abominable thing 
that God hates, to holiness which is infinitely ami- 
able in his sight ; from sin, which acts the tyrant 
over all who are subject to its power, to holiness 
which constitutes the most perfect freedom that a 
rational creature can enjoy ; from sin, which makes 
us liable to eternal condemnation, to holiness which 
iiu plies our acceptance of the appointed Saviour, and 
fits us for eternal life. 

But if this account of repentance be accurate, 
with what propriety can we put it off to a future 
occasion ? Can it be reasonable to delay consult- 
ing the original dignity of our nature ? to delay 
what is well pleasing to him who is the greatest 
and the best of beings ? to delay asserting that 
spiritual liberty which is so valuable, and which we 
must forego so long as we continue in sin ? to delay 
accepting of Him through whom alone we can ob- 
tain salvation? to delay entering into a state of 



SEli. 19. 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



439 



peace with God and with our own minds ? to delay 
pursuing an object which we must allow to be pre- 
eminently excellent, and at the same time adhere 
to one which we allow to be worthless, vile and 
ruinous beyond expression ? Can such conduct be 
deemed reasonable ? No : it is the most unreason- 
able, the most inconsistent, the most preposterous 
conduct of which we can be guilty. To avoid 
such a glaring contradiction ; to show that our 
resolutions of amendment are sincere ; to pre- 
vent our conduct from giving the lie to our profes- 
sions, it behoves us to repent immediately. If we 
would realize the views of repentance which we 
affect to entertain ; if we would practically allow 
to religion that high importance of which we be- 
lieve it to be possessed ; if we would manifest our 
convictions of the evil of sin and the beauties of 
holiness; if we would act agreeably to the true spirit 
of any determinations we may have made to repent 
hereafter ; these determinations must be instantly 
carried into effect. " Behold, now is the accepted 
time." 

But the same conclusion may be drawn from the 
commandment of God concerning repentance. lie 
has commanded us to repent, He has distinctly 
and peremptorily commanded us, to renounce our 
sins, and to devote ourselves entirely to his will. 
Now, do we acknowledge his authority? Then let 
his injunction be obeyed. But can it be made a 
question when this obedience shall be rendered? 
Can we hesitate as to the time when we shall do 



440 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SEIt. 19. 



what God requires ? Can we think of putting off 
to some distant period compliance with his express 
and righteous appointments ? Nothing surely can 
be more unreasonable and foolish and sinful than 
this, If we admit the authority of God over us to 
be supreme, and if we are satisfied that he has posi- 
tively enjoined repentance as a necessary duty, we 
cannot discharge it too soon. To delay obedience, 
is to dispute his right to command, or to defy his 
power to punish ; and is moreover inconsistent 
with our own supposed intention to repent, for 
we intend to do this, because the divine will has de- 
clared it to be necessary to salvation. The same 
reason that we have for submitting to the divine 
commandment at all, we have for submitting to it 
without delay. And he who has just impressions 
of the relation in which he stands to God will has- 
ten to keep his commandments. These command- 
ments are as binding at this moment as they can be 
at any future period. They have always the sanc- 
tion of divine authority. And if it be reasonable 
to yield to this authority, it must be most reasona- 
able to do so, the very first opportunity that we en- 
joy. Why should we delay ? Can any thing come 
into competition with what we owe to the great 
Rider of all ? Can any occupation be more urgent 
than the service of such a great and good Being ? 
Can any consideration justify us in putting off the 
adoption of those means by which it is his will that 
we should be saved ? When he commands us to 
repent, he commands us tp forsake sin, which \ve 



SEli. 19- 



THE ACCEPTED TIME* 



441 



never should have committed ; he commands us to 
cultivate holiness, from which we ought never to 
have swerved ; he commands us to surrender our- 
selves entirely to him, to whom we owe the most 
unreserved allegiance, and from obedience to whom 
w^e can at no period consider ourselves exempted. 

If then we know any thing of the nature of 
repentance — if we acquiesce in the change which 
it implies— if we have respect to the command- 
ment of God — if we have acknowledged the 
necessity of being devoted to his will, — and if we 
have even determined that, at some time or other, 
we shall return to him in his appointed way, let us 
not act so foolishly and so inconsistently and so arro- 
gantly as to let any business, any pleasure, any pre- 
text whatever, induce us to procrastinate another 
day or another hour. If the thing is to be done, 
no time can be so proper as the present. And this 
would hold true, even though we were assured of 
a future season for repentance, which we could 
successfully improve. Even in that case it would 
be most unreasonable to delay the good work. 
Even in that case it might be said to us with jus- 
tice, and should be said to us with effect ; " Behold, 
now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day 
of salvation !" 

II. Repentance ought not to be delayed, because 
the longer it is delayed, the more painful and diffi- 
cult will the exercise of it become. 

The power of habit has been universally felt, and 
generaUy acknowledged. Thoughts which iwj 



Till; ACCEPTED TIME. 



SER. 19. 



have long indulged, practices to which we have 
been long addicted, acquire such a seat in the heart 
and character as to become, in some measure, a part 
of our system. And hence we generally hear habit 
spoken of under the strong and expressive appella- 
tion of a second nature. What we are accustomed 
to do, even though it has been originally disagree- 
able to us, grows as natural and easy as if we had 
been originally inclined to it ; and if it be something 
to which we are inherently disposed, frequent use 
gives it a double hold on our affections, and ren- 
ders it doubly spontaneous. Of the truth of this, 
every one's personal experience, as well as his ob- 
servation of the conduct of others, must afford the 
most convincing testimony. The fact may not be 
easily accounted for, but still it is a fact invariable 
and undoubted, that habit is, in most cases, as pow- 
erful, and in some cases, more powerful, than con- 
stitutional disposition. 

Consider this fact now, as applied to those who 
are delaying repentance to a future occasion. If 
habit, simply considered, is powerful, its power must 
be increased in proportion to the length of time 
during which it is allowed to prevail, because its 
power is acquired at first, by the frequent repetition 
of the act of which it consists. The person, there- 
fore, who resolves to repent hereafter, is not only 
careless of the obstacles which habit lays in the way 
of his repentance, at whatever time it may be exer- 
cised, but waits till these obstacles are greatly mul- 
tiplied and strengthened 5 and as he defers the 



SEll. 19. 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



i m 



work to an opportunity which lies at an indefinite 
distance, he thereby rims the obvious risk of hav- 
ing the obstacles to its accomplishment not only 
multiplied and strengthened, but perhaps rendered 
altogether ^insurmountable. What folly! thus to 
allow habit, which is already felt to be abundant- 
ly strong, time and means to acquire additional 
force. What madness ! thus deliberately to court 
additional difficulties, when those now existing are 
so great as hardly to be overcome, even in the most 
favourable circumstances. A tree which cumbers 
their ground, and which they intend to remove, and 
which they know will require, even at present, the 
greatest exertions to eradicate, they permit to stand 
season after season, till it strike a deeper and yet a 
deeper root, and threaten to resist their most labo- 
rious efforts. Why not, on every principle of wis- 
dom, begin the work immediately, and do it while 
it can be done with comparative facility ? 

But the extreme folly of the conduct of those 
who delay repentance appears farther, when we con- 
sider the nature of those habits which it is neces- 
sary for them to renounce. These are not habits 
to which they are naturally averse, which have been 
forced upon them by certain infelicities of situation, 
and which may be got the better of by change of 
place and external circumstances. They are not 
habits which, if originally unpleasant to them, they 
still in some degree dislike, and are anxious to sub- 
due. No : were this the case, they would not 
think of delaying, they would instantly cast them 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SEIl. J 9. 



from them. But the very circumstance of their de- 
laying* shows that these habits are highly agree- 
able to them, or that they are deterred from the 
attempt by the difficulties which it threatens. In 
either case, the reason plainly is, that their habits 
are of a vicious kind : For vicious habits are al- 
ways the most inveterate. It is much easier to se- 
duce the sober man into intemperance, than to re- 
claim the intemperate man to sobriety. And the 
cause of this is to be found in the depravity of 
human nature. This is the original source of sin- 
ful habits. It is this which nourishes them into 
form and vigour. It is this which stimulates to 
the continued indulgence of them. It is this which 
makes them pleasing and delightful. It is this 
which produces a disinclination to throw them off, 
and resists the efforts which may be made for their 
removal. And those wicked habits, thus supported 
and cherished by the natural corruption of the heart, 
operate with a reciprocal influence, and give to that 
corruption a greater activity and more certain effi- 
cacy. The roots of natural depravity and the roots 
of evil habit are thus, as it were, interwoven with 
each other — they cling to one another with close 
and mutual attachment — and therefore, to eradicate 
evil habits is like tearing the heart in pieces. 

It is true that divine grace can subdue all oppo- 
sition, and overcome the worst and most inveterate 
habits ; and, after all, it is to this grace you must be 
indebted for your repentance and conversion unto 
God. But it is also true that divine grace has not 



SER. 19- 



THE ACCEPTED TIM. 



US 



promised to work miracles in your behalf— that all 
those laws which are originally impressed upon 
your moral nature will be more or less respected by 
Him who established them— that he will not deal 
with you as mere passive machines in whom there 
is no will, no affections, no prejudices, no habits to 
be conquered and restrained by ordinary means. 
The very record which tells you of the necessity 
and efficacy of grace, tells you at the same time in 
most emphatical language, of the extreme difficulty 
of subduing evil habits. " Can the Ethiopian change 
his skin or the leopard his spots ? Then may ye also 
do good that are accustomed to do evil." 

Be taught then by the united lesson of Scripture 
and experience on the subject of evil habits, not to 
delay the work of repentance. As the case stands, it 
will require all your efforts, and all your diligence, 
and all your watchfulness, to renounce the sinful plea- 
sures and pursuits which have acquired an ascenden- 
cy over your wills. Do not then increase the obsta- 
cles which lie in the way of this necessary change, 
by continuing any longer in iniquity. But instant- 
ly and wholly forsake every one of them, and re- 
turn to the ways of God : for " behold, now is the ac- 
cepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." 

III. In the third and last place, repentance should 
not be delayed, because circumstances may occur to 
render it impracticable, and consequently to secure 
your ruin. 

Every sin you commit renders you guilty before 
God ; but when warned of your guilt, and of the 



446 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SEE. 19. 



danger that is connected with it, you go on to ag- 
gravate the one and to despise the other, you pro- 
voke God to give you over to a reprobate mind, to 
inflict upon you judicial blindness, to harden your 
heart as he hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and 
thus to render your impenitence itself a part of your 
punishment. In no case, indeed, can we affirm that 
this certainly happens : but it may happen. God 
may say to you, though you hear it not, " My spirit 
shall not always strive with you. I withdraw my 
offers of mercy and salvation which you have so long 
and so obstinately rejected. You have joined your- 
selves to idols, and I let you alone. Sleep on 
now, and take your rest." And is this a calami- 
ty that you would choose to risk, for the sake of all 
that the universe can give ? No, my friends ; to be 
thus sealed over to destruction, while yet the day of 
grace is shining to all around you, is too dreadful 
to be thought of without feelings of terror and 
alarm. Expose yourselves, therefore, no longer to 
the hazard of such an awful fate : And let not this 
consideration be forgotten, that the very admonition 
I am now giving may, if you neglect it, be the 
last link in that chain which is for ever to bind you 
down to sin and ruin and despair. 

But supposing that God does not shut up his 
mercy, but still waits to be gracious, may you not 
in the course of providence be placed in a situation 
where there shall be nothing, as there now is, to 
suggest, to enforce, or to secure your return to him. 
At present vou have all the means of grace operat- 



SER. If). 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



nig* upon your minds to persuade and enable yon 
to repent. But you may not be always so highly 
favoured. You may go where religion is neither 
practised nor believed ; where your Sabbaths shall 
be all silent — where no sanctuary of God shall call 
you into its hallowed courts — where there shall be 
no ministers of the word of truth to speak to you, 
either its terrors or its mercies — where no friend 
shall be found to counsel you about the things that 
belong to your peace — where you shall breathe the 
very atmosphere of infidelity and profaneness — and 
where every thing shall conspire to repress every 
rising conviction, and to encourage you in the path 
of ungodliness and vice. And if you repent not 
amidst all the spiritual advantages that you now 
possess, what is it that is to make you repent when 
all these shall be taken from you, and you are forced, 
as it were, to forget that there is a God against whom 
you have sinned, and an eternity into which you 
must go ? If you find not your way back when the 
light of ordinances is shining upon your path ; what 
hope is there of your return when that light shall 
depart, and leave you to walk in midnight darkness ? 
" Now is the accepted time ; now is the day of sal- 
vation." 

Granting, however, that no such change of cir- 
cumstances should take place, the power of disease 
may seize upon you and lay you low on the bed of 
languishing and pain. That, indeed, you may flat- 
ter yourselves, will be a fit occasion— the very oc- 
casion which you always expected to come, and 



448 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SER. 3 9. 



which you always resolved to improve — for attend- 
ing to your spiritual interests. Alas ! you know little 
of the nature of religion or of the work of repent- 
ance, if you think that the time of bodily distress is 
the time for beginning to attend to such moment- 
ous concerns. It is the season for enjoying the 
consolations of the gospel, and oh ! how sweet and 
cheering are these to the heart of the afflicted saint ; 
but to turn the mind, for the first time, to the work 
of preparation for eternity, when the body is over- 
powered by sickness or tossing in agony — that is a 
delusion into which none but the healthful and the 
thoughtless can fall. Go into the chambers of dis- 
ease, and this fancy will delude you no more. It 
is in health that you must give yourselves to the 
faith and the duties of Christianity : if you wait till 
sickness comes, you may perhaps express regret, 
and feel remorse, and form resolutions ; but oh ! 
there is far more to do than this ; and the probabi- 
lity is that it will never be done. " Sufficient unto 
that day is the evil thereof." " Now is the accepted 
time ; now is the day of the salvation." 

And is there not soundness of mind, which is still 
more necessary than health of body, for attending to 
the concerns of the soul ; but of which you may be 
deprived when you are least expecting it. If rea- 
son be lost, the gospel is nothing to us — we have 
gone as it were into another world, where the mes- 
sage of salvation cannot reach us. And if we have 
allowed the season of improvement to pass away 
without having stamped upon our character those 

6 



SER, 19. 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



449 



features of grace and of holiness which the eye of 
God would have recognised amidst all the ruins of 
our intellectual frame, what is there that we can plead 
when we go from the wilderness of dreams and 
fancies, into the realities of the eternal scene ? The 
book of life is opened and our names are not there. 
We foolishly waited till the mind could no longer 
lay hold of an offered Saviour. And now reason 
may never again ascend her throne, or wield her 
sceptre, or shed her light upon the shaded soul. 
Intelligence is extinguished and consciousness may 
not return, till the Judge of all demand an account 
of faculties misapplied — of opportunities wasted — 
-of warnings and invitations given to the wind — of 
folly infinitely greater than the madness, or the 
fatuity, in which the taper of our mental life is left 
to expire. " Now, then, is the accepted time ; now 
is the day of salvation." 

But though none of these things should take 
place, liable as we are to every one of them, we 
know that we must die, and we know not when 
our death shall be. " The Son of man may come 
on a day, and at an hour, that we think not of." 
We may be cut off in the midst of health, and youth, 
and gaiety. Oh! are there not many instances on 
record — has not the fact been brought home to our 
very doors and our very hearts — -of men and wo- 
men, the young as well as the old — the strong as 
well as the feeble— the sinner as well as the saint, — 
being cut off at an unexpected moment, and sent to 
the bar of judgment, before they had time to cry for 

% g 



450 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



SEIt. 19. 



the mercy they so much needed ? What has happen- 
ed to others may happen to us : and surely with 
such a peril hanging* over our heads, it may well be 
said, " Now is the accepted time \ now is the day 
of salvation." 

Another year has passed away ; and bequeathed 
to us many a lesson and many a warning.* We 
cannot think that we shall all be spared to the ter- 
mination of the year on which we have entered. 
Before that period arrives, some of us assuredly 
shall have given in an account : and which of us, 
God only knows. It may be they who are least 
expecting, and least prepared for, the change : But 
did I say, another year $ O let us not natter our- 
selves with so long an anticipation. The summer's 
sun may shine upon our tomb. Our eyes may even 
be doomed never again to behold the opening beau- 
ties of spring. The storm of winter may yet howl 
over our grave. Another year ! " Thou fool, this 
very night, thy soul may be required of thee." 
" Let us then give all diligence to make our calling 
and election sure." Let us delay no longer the 
work of faith in the Saviour, of repentance to- 
wards God, of preparation for an eternal world. 
Say not " I must finish this undertaking ; I must 
enjoy this amusement ; I must indulge myself for 
this season : in a little time I will attend to the one 
thing needful." Oh ! my friends, that time may 
never come : and if you reason, and feel, and act, in 

* Preached on the first Sabbath of the year. 



SER. 19- 



THE ACCEPTED TIME. 



451 



this way, it will never come. " Brethren the time 
is short :" life is uncertain : eternity is impending 
and approaching. " Wherefore gird up the loins 
of your minds : be sober and hope to the end for 
the grace that is to be brought at the revelation of 
Jesus Christ : as obedient children, not fashioning 
yourselves according to the former lusts in your 
ignorance ; but as He which hath called you is holy, 
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." 
When you retire from this place, allow not the 
good impressions, which you have received, to be 
effaced by the temptations and vanities of the world 
into which you again enter : but carry with you 
the lesson of the text ; and pray that it may be 
engraven by the divine Spirit on your hearts — 
" Now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day 
of salvation." 



452 



to dtfji'isqsb Biff !o ?! 
i>H£ Jin fi to'^Kyi n 




qmA bad mudnm \i 
SERMON XX.* 




iiQQcf asrl Birft 




ilmii aruiiA €il lis&a mr vmlnn hrrA ^aq si tori) 

VIEWS OF DEATH. 

tone -9Ti8897qmifljjr ynj3ijp9 -e'd Hiw ifosegl erid torft 
psalm civ. 29, last clause. 

8noi889iqx9 if9ffd iii £s9biroi won 918 oifw ? 93o.d;fr ifirfi 

" Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. 1 ' 

Death, my friends, is a subject to which our atten- 
tion has been frequently directed. We have read 
of it in the word of God : every page of the history 
of the world brings it under our review ; and many 
a time has it come home to our observation and our 
feelings, in the melancholy experience of our own 
families and kindred. And yet how feeble is the 
impression which it has made upon our minds, and 
how limited the effect which it has produced upon 
our conduct, as beings who have been created at 
once for time and for eternity ! We feel and weep 

* Preached in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, 23d November, 
1817, being the Sabbath after the funeral of the Princess Charlotte of 
Wales. 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH, 



453 



for a little hour : we talk sadly of the departure of 
our friends and our fellow-creatures for a few pass- 
ing days : we wear the customary badges of mourn- 
ing for some weeks ; and then we forget it all, and 
go on to lire as if nothing had happened, and as if 
God were never to " take away our breath, and we 
were never to die and return to our dust." Alas ! 
my friends, we must acknowledge that this has been 
too much the case with every one of us, in the time 
that is past. And unless we shall in future think 
of death much more closely and much more seri- 
ously than we have hitherto done, there is reason to 
fear that the lesson will be equally unimpressive and 
unimproved in all the time that is to come ; and 
that those, who are now loudest in their expressions 
of grief, will ere long be seen as heedless of God 
and a future state, and as much devoted to the pur- 
suits and pleasures and vanities of a present life, as 
if this world were the everlasting rest of man. 

Deprecating such an empty and unworthy result 
as this of the affecting dispensations of Providence, 
and anxious that you should be led by them to be- 
come wiser and better, I would now submit to your 
thoughts some particular and interesting views of 
that solemn subject to which the text refers. I say 
particular, as well as interesting views ; for a great 
proportion of the evil to which I allude arises from 
this circumstance, that we think of death, when it 
is presented to our notice, vaguely and indefinitely. 
We regard it too much as a general abstract truth. 
We do not look at it in those individual and separ- 



454 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



ate aspects which it assumes. And, consequently, 
our conceptions of it are destitute of vividness and 
force, and we see in it nothing more than the proof, 
and the lesson, of man's mortality — a proof which is 
rather acknowledged than felt, and a lesson which 
is too extended to be impressive, and is therefore 
learned only to be disregarded or forgotten. Let 
us, then, devote ourselves this day to the contem- 
plation of death in a variety of its characters and 
effects, and to the consideration of those practical 
lessons which these are calculated to teach us. And 
may that great Being who " takes away our breath, 
when we die and return to our dust," enable us to 
meditate on these things with becoming seriousness, 
to apply them impartially to our own case, and to 
derive from them those advantages, whether of 
warning, of improvement, or of comfort, which they 
are fitted to afford. 

I. In the first place, we observe that death disor- 
ganizes and destroys our corporeal frame. This is 
a part of the subject on which it would be painful 
to dwell. The words of the text are distinguished 
by a combination of delicacy and emphasis ; for they 
tell us that when God " takes away our breath, we 
die and return to our dust." They describe not the 
intermediate and humbling process which our bodies 
undergo, before they dissolve into their primary 
elements. They merely announce the execution of 
the original sentence, " Dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return." Yes, my friends, this is the 
end of all flesh. You see man walking in the ma- 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



455 



jesty of strength, or in all the charms of graceful- 
ness and beauty ; you see the cheek blooming with 
health, and the eye beaming with intelligence, and 
altogether you might suppose him a god in this low- 
er world, incapable of decay and dissolution. Look 
again, and God has taken away his breath ; — and 
strength and beauty and intelligence are gone, and 
a cold, pale, lifeless corpse, is all that remains. Look 
yet again when a few years have elapsed, and be- 
hold, his very bones are consumed, and you cannot 
distinguish him from the earth in which he was laid, 
and you cannot even tell that it was a human being 
whose remains you are contemplating. O this is the 
fate of all the children of mortality. The fairest 
form that ever kindled admiration in the eye of 
man, or made his heart beat and melt with love — 
the most stately and vigorous and god-like frame 
that ever wielded the instruments of battle, or at- 
tracted the gaze of a multitude, — must cease to be 
beautiful or strong, and lie down in the grave, and 
say to corruption, " thou art my father, and to the 
worm, thou art my mother and my sister !" What 
a lesson of humility and abasement does this consi- 
deration teach us ! How foolish, with such a pros- 
pect before us, to cherish one feeling of vanity or 
pride ! How inconsistent with our known destiny to 
live as if we were ethereal beings, and our very 
bodies were to be immortal ! O young man, why 
boast thyself in a robust constitution and an athletic 
form, why so anxious to pamper its appetites and 
minister to its gratification, since disease may de- 



456 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. QO, 



prive thee of all thy strength, and death will cer- 
tainly bring* thee to weakness and to dust. O, 
young- woman, why count upon thy personal charms, 
since death will soon " consume thy beauty like a 
moth," and why so careful to adorn thy fair but fad- 
ing- tabernacle, which must ere long be shrouded 
from the eye of those who now admire and love 
thee, and be laid in the cold darksome grave, and 
moulder away unheeded into its kindred earth ? 
But while death thus teaches us to be humble, as to 
all that is connected with our mortal part, it, with 
no less emphasis, directs us to the care of our im- 
perishable souls. Our souls surviving the dissolu- 
tion and corruption of the body, and designed for 
an eternal existence, rightfully demand that care 
which corresponds with their spiritual nature, and 
has a tendency to fit them for their future destiny. 
Death sends the body to the dust from which it was 
taken, but the spirit unto God who gave it ; and 
that spirit must be prepared for appearing before 
him, by being clothed in the righteousness of the 
Redeemer, and adorned with the graces of Chris- 
tianity. O then let us look beyond the comfort, 
and indulgence, and well-being of our frail and fad- 
ing tenement of flesh and blood, and devote our chief 
attention to the health and improvement of the soul 
which inhabits it, so that when death comes we may 
resign ourselves to the dust, in the expectation of a 
blessed immortality. Nor are we left without hope 
even as to the body. It must, indeed, become the 
prey of worms and corruption. But it is " sealed 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



457 



to the day of redemption," which draweth nigh. 
The Son of Man, when he comes the second time, 
shall call it forth to the resurrection of life. He 
shall glorify it by making it " like unto his own glo- 
rious body," and " this corruptible having put on in- 
corruption, and this mortal having put on immor- 
tality, death shall be swallowed up in victory." 

II. In the second place, Death puts an end to all 
worldly distinctions. When we look around us in 
society, we see these distinctions universally pre- 
vailing. Some abound in riches and others are 
sunk in poverty. Some are destined to fill exalted 
stations, and others dwell in perpetual obscurity. 
Some are appointed to command, and others to 
obey. Some are adorned with titles and with ho- 
nours, and others are born to the simplicity of in- 
ferior rank, and are never permitted to rise above 
the level on which they drew their first breath. 

This variety of external condition is neither to 
be ridiculed nor condemned. It arises from the 
very constitution of human nature, and from the 
circumstances in which mankind are placed ; and 
they who would violently attempt to destroy it, are 
regardless equally of the arrangements of divine 
providence, and of the prosperity and happiness of 
the social state. 

But though, in itself, it seems to be both necessary 
and expedient, it too often engenders sentiments 
and conduct to which the whole spirit of Christian - 
ity stands opposed. We observe it, on the one 
hand, giving birth to pride, contempt, and oppres- 



458 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



sion in those who occupy the elevated ranks of life. 
We observe it, on the other hand, producing im- 
patience, discontent, and rebellion among- those who 
move in a lower sphere, and sometimes it occasions 
such animosities and crimes as tempt the philan- 
thropist to forget his more enlightened principles, 
and to regret the existence of that adventitious su- 
periority of one over another in which they all 
seem to originate, 

Now there are many considerations which should 
operate in preventing or in curing these evils. 
There is a reference to the appointment and ad- 
ministration of an infinitely wise God. There is 
the suitableness of the existing system of things to 
the existing state of man. There is the evident in- 
fluence which it has in exciting^ industry, in calling 
forth virtues that would be otherwise dormant, and 
in promoting the general good. These views 
should all conspire not only to reconcile us to those 
worldly distinctions which prevail in society, but to 
lead us to cultivate the temper, and maintain the 
character, which they severally require. 

But the most powerful and efficient correction 
of all, is the anticipation of death. When God 
" takes away our breath," every difference of out- 
ward condition is removed, and all the circumstan- 
ces which separated one man, or one class of men, 
from another, are melted down into vanity and 
nothing. Look into the grave, and see how 
all shadow of distinction is lost for ever. The 
great and the small are there. And O why should 



SER. c 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



4.59 



the high be proud and contemptuous ; and why 
should the low murmur and repine, when they shall 
all lie down alike in the dust and the worms shall 
cover them ? 

Yes, my friends, all earthly distinctions are des- 
troyed at death. Sometimes, indeed, they may ap- 
pear to remain. One man is honoured with a splen- 
did and imposing burial. Another has a blazoned 
monument erected over him. A third may have 
historians to record his name, and poets to sing his 
praise. And in contrast to all these, a fourth may 
be laid in the base earth, and have not even a stone 
to tell w r here he lies, and fade from the remem- 
brance, almost as soon as he passes from the sight 
of that world, in which he did little more than toil, 
and weep, and suffer. But let your eye penetrate 
through those showy and unsubstantial forms which 
custom, or affection, or vanity has thrown over the 
graves of departed mortals, and behold how the 
mightiest and the meanest lie side by side in one 
common undistinguished ruin. Striking is the fact, 
and numerous are its proofs. Every day that passes 
over you, and every funeral that you attend, and 
every chureh-yard that you visit, give you the af- 
fecting demonstration. And sometimes God in his 
judgment, or in his mercy, sends a proof of it 
which knocks loudly at the door of every heart, 
and sets a broad and a lasting seal upon the hum- 
bling truth. This proof he has lately sent us in the 
most solemn and pathetic form which it could pos- 
sibly assume. There was one who had all that 



460 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. SO, 



earthly greatness can confer ; who filled one of the 
most elevated and conspicuous stations to which 
mortals are ever born ; who had all of personal dig- 
nity, and accomplishment, and honour, that this 
world could afford ; and who, as her best and high- 
est distinction, sat enthroned in the heart of her 
country as their admiration and their hope. Such 
she was ; but it pleased God, whose creature and 
whose child she was, to assert his own sovereignty, 
and to illustrate the emptiness of all terrestrial 
grandeur, by taking away her breath, and she died, 
and is returning to her dust. And what, think you, 
my friends, are the distinctions in which she is now 
rejoicing ? Not in those with which she was sur- 
rounded and adorned on earth ; these have lost all 
their importance and all their charms, and even that 
universal and affectionate respect in which she was 
held appears to her now a very little thing. But 
there are distinctions which death cannot touch, and 
which are now, we trust, the glory and the joy of 
her departed spirit. To her, we trust, it is now 
given to rejoice, that in the high places of this wil- 
derness, she was enabled, by divine grace, to con- 
fide in the mercy of her God and in the merits of 
her Redeemer ; that she paid a practical regard to 
the exercises of devotion ; that she reverenced the 
Lord's day ; that she performed her relative duties 
with affection and fidelity ; that she set an example 
of piety and virtue, amidst strong temptation and 
abounding iniquity ; and that with the splendid 
prospects of an earthly crown, she did not forget 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



her heavenly hopes, but aspired after that crown of 
righteousness and glory which fadeth not away. 

Receive then, my friends, and practise the lesson 
which all this inculcates. It speaks to you who 
occupy distinguished situations in the world ; and 
it says, behold the nothingness of earthly grandeur, 
and power, and riches. Use them as not abusing 
them, knowing that their fashion soon passeth 
away. Though elevated in station, be humble in 
spirit. Let no contemptuous feeling be cherished, 
and no harsh conduct be practised towards those 
who are below you. Employ your influence and 
authority, not in oppressing innocence, but in 
checking guilt, and injustice, and cruelty. And 
whenever you feel tempted to abuse the advantages 
of your condition, look into the grave, and see the 
level to which you must come at last ; and look be- 
yond the grave, that in the immortality into which 
death introduces the saints of God, you may see the 
distinction to which it is your highest honour to 
aspire, and which it will be your highest happiness 
to attain. The same fact speaks to you who are 
moving in the humble walks of life ; to you it says, 
Why repine that you are not invested with the in- 
signia of worldly greatness, that you are not favoured 
with wealth, that you have not been born or raised 
to stations from which you might look down on your 
fellow-men ? why repine that these distinctions are 
not yours, since the time is fast approaching when 
you shall return to your dust, and they shall be as 
if they had never been ? Envy not such fleeting pos- 

6 



462 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



sessions — scowl not on those to whom they belong 
— " give honour to whom honour is due" — " be con- 
tented with such things as you have" — and seek to 
obtain those distinctions of principle and of cha- 
racter which are within your reach, which elevate 
you in the sight of God, which perish not in the 
grave, and which shall pass with you into the in- 
heritance that is on high, and that lasts for ever. 

III. In the third place, death terminates all 
labour and all pleasure under the sun. 

What a scene of activity and toil does this world 
present to us ! From inclination or necessity all 
are busily engaged. Some are gaining their daily 
bread by the sweat of their brow. Others are seek- 
ing for wealth in the higher walks of speculation 
and industry. And some are searching for more 
enlarged information, or studying to extend the 
boundaries of human knowledge, by exertions both 
of mind and body. Every one has some object of 
ambition, and every one is pursuing it with ardour 
and hope. Such is the aspect which society pre- 
sents to us. But death interposes ; and the arm of 
diligence is arrested, and the occupation of life is 
gone for ever. Only anticipate the conclusion of 
a few years, and all the frail mortals, who now 
employ themselves in the active scenes of this world, 
shall have died and returned to their dust. God 
shall take away their breath, one by one, till each 
and all of them shall have sunk into the place of 
silence and of rest. Now, is our labour pleasant ? 
Let us then apply to it the hand of diligence. Let 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



403 



us, if possible, increase in it more and more ; let us 
engage in it for a useful, honourable, legitimate ob- 
ject ; and let us be stimulated to the persevering 
pursuit, by the consideration that we must, sooner 
or later, submit to the paralysing stroke of death 5 
and that it will be our shame and our condemna- 
tion, to be found standing idle, or acting with but 
partial earnestness, when we had such a prospect 
before us ? On the other hand, are our labours 
painful ? From age, or from infirmity, or from any 
other cause, is industry a burden which we can nei- 
ther easily bear nor afford to throw away ? And 
are our spirits ready to sink under the hard alter- 
native ? Let us be patient, and let us still endea- 
vour to perform our duty. Our hardships will not 
always last. Death will come to our relief. The 
grave shall open its peaceful bosom to receive us. 
And, sleeping in the dust, we shall forget alike our 
sorrows and our toils. 

But there is a work far more important than the 
ordinary labours and business of the world, which 
death must also terminate. I mean the work of 
salvation and of righteousness. While we live, 
we have means and opportunities for carrying on 
that work. But the moment that God " takes 
away our breath," we can advance in it no farther ; 
we can labour in it no more. " There is no work, 
nor wisdom, nor device, in the grave f and " as the 
tree falleth, so must it lie." What a solemn warning 
does this afford to us, against sloth and inactivity in 
the business of preparation for an eternal world ? 



4C4 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



ser. C 2Q. 



How loudly does it call upon us, and how effec- 
tually should it prevail with us, to work that mo- 
mentous work while it is day ! Be persuaded, my 
friends, to apply yourselves cordially to the faith 
and obedience of the gospel. Let every duty be 
faithfully discharged. In all your different rela- 
tions, and in all your various circumstances, let it 
be your ambition, and your endeavour, to do the 
will of God. Let no good action be unnecessarily 
delayed, or carelessly performed. If there be any 
act of justice due from you to any of your fellow- 
men ; if there be any poor and afflicted ones who 
need the consolation and the aid which you can 
give ; if you have reparation to make for wrongs 
that you have done, or forgiveness to bestow 
for injuries you have received ; if you have it 
in your power to assist in instructing the igno- 
rant, in reclaiming the wanderer, or in spread- 
ing the knowledge of the Saviour's name ; if you 
have any obligations to fulfil — any omissions to 
supply — any opportunities of usefulness, or of kind- 
ness, to improve, as parents and as children, as hus- 
bands and as wives, as masters and as servants, as 
neighbours and as friends ; if there be any evil ha- 
bit you have to subdue, or any good habit you have 
to acquire, or to strengthen — any one thing to do in 
any one department of Christian duty, we exhort 
and entreat you to do it while it is called to-day, 
for the period will soon come, and it may come 
sooner than you think, when God shall " take 



ser. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



465 



away your breath, and you shall die, and return to 
your dust." 

And to those who are lovers of pleasure, how 
alarming* is the language of the text. Whether 
they be addicted to indulgences criminal in them- 
selves, or abuse by excess the blessings of provi- 
dence, or partake of lawful gratifications with an 
eagerness and a relish which they feel not in the 
exercises of religion — in all these cases, it is useful 
to remind them, that not one of the objects on 
which they lavish their affections, can they carry 
with them beyond the grave, but that, when God 
"takes away their breath," their sensual and worldly 
enjoyments come to a perpetual end. Ye who 
love pleasure more than God, can you believe this, 
and yet persevere in your vain and wicked course ? 
Are your favourite pursuits to terminate at death, 
and will you still apply to them as the chief sources 
of your happiness ? Is the grave to arrest the 
current of your joy, and will you limit your ambi- 
tion there, and seek and prepare for no good be- 
yond it? O do not thus brave the terrors of 
the last enemy — do not thus reject the warning 
lesson that he gives you ; do not thus cast from 
you, and trample upon, the wisdom which God in- 
culcates, when he declares, in his word, and by his 
providence, that he will " take away your breath." 
Rather let every instance of mortality awaken you 
to serious thought— teach you to number your days, 
and to improve them — induce you to enter into 
the ways of holiness and of life— and convert you, 

2h 



466 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



who are "lovers of pleasures/' into 4 'lovers of God." 
And let this be the effect of the dispensation which 
we now deplore. She who has left an empire to 
mourn her departure, calls upon you, by her death, 
and by her high example, to renounce a world of 
vanity and of sin, and to give your heart to that 
good Being, who alone can make you truly and for 
ever happy. If she call upon you in vain, then, I 
say, weep not for her, but weep for yourselves. In 
spite of many allurements, and many disadvantages, 
she lived a pattern of domestic sobriety, and vir- 
tuous abstraction from the world. And she died, 
by the inscrutable will of God, that her pattern 
might be stamped upon your hearts, and that you 
might show your submission to the divine pur- 
pose, and your admiration of departed worth, by 
imitating the excellence which she displayed. 

IV. In the fourth place, death dissolves the dear- 
est and tenderest ties. And this is one of its most 
gloomy and forbidding features. Take from me 
the wealth, the luxuries, and the ordinary comforts 
of life — divest me of every honour to which I have 
been raised, and of all the influence which station, 
and power, and opulence, have given me — deprive 
me even of my good name, which is better than 
riches, and all that riches can command — do this, 
but leave me the friends that are dear to my soul, 
and I am comforted ; for their presence and affec- 
tion will compensate for any loss ; and though they 
cannot rejoice with me, as I do not rejoice, they 
will yet weep with me when I weep. But when 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



467 



these " die, and return to their dust," I am left 
poor, and sad, and disconsolate indeed. Every tie 
which is broken by their removal, inflicts an an- 
guish on the heart, which none but they who have 
experienced it can adequately conceive, and casts a 
shade over the path of life, which its brightest 
hours can with difficulty chase away. O, it is easy 
for those who have never felt it, to talk pathetical- 
ly on this mournful subject. But you alone, my 
friends, who have watched the deathbed of a ve- 
nerated parent, or a beloved child, of the partner of 
your bosom, or the sister, or the brother, or the 
friend of your heart — you alone can tell, that there 
is no sorrow like to that which you feel, when 
God " takes away the breath" of those whom you 
fondly love, and with whose existence your own 
seemed inseparably entwined. Under the pres- 
sure of this sorrow, when we have just listened to 
the parting breath, and said the long farewell, and 
closed the beamless eye — when all that we admired 
of talent, and all that we loved of virtue, is fled, and 
the object of our deepest and tenderest attachment 
" returns to the dust," how apt are we to think that 
death is but sporting with our happiness, and to 
feel as if we were abandoned to darkness and des- 
pair. 

Yet death, when it is dissolving those close and 
tender ties which link us to one another, is at once 
teaching us wisdom, and directing us to comfort. 

It teaches us wisdom, by showing us the pe- 
rishable nature of human friendships, and lead- 



468 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



ing us to take a looser hold, than we might other- 
wise do, of creatures who must soon " die and 
return to their dust." It should not, indeed, pre- 
vent us from forming such attachments, and from 
cultivating them with ardour, and from giving full 
scope to all the affections of kindred, and all the 
endearments of domestic life. But it should mode- 
rate the eagerness and the delight with which every 
susceptible mind is apt to enter into these relations, 
and to indulge in these pure and kindly enjoyments. 
It should induce us to associate with those who are 
dearest to us, under the softening impression that 
God may soon, or suddenly, " take away their 
breath." And it should constrain us to devote the 
best and highest of our regards to Him, by whom 
our friends are given to us, in whom infinite ex- 
cellence resides, and from whose love neither life 
nor death can ever separate us, if we are his by 
faith in Christ Jesus. 

But death, in this view, not only teaches us wis- 
dom, it also directs us to comfort. Death takes 
away our friends and lays them in the dust, and 
they shall return to us no more. But if they have 
been worthy of the love we have felt for them — if 
they have been walking in the ways of God, and are 
meet for that " new heaven and new earth in 
which dwelleth righteousness," we have good hope, 
through grace, that it is now well with them for 
eternity. They have gone to " their Father and to 
our Father, to their God and to our God." They 
are where our affection, when purified from all the 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



469 



weakness and selfishness of humanity, would desire 
them to be, — in a world where they will sin and sor- 
row no more — where all their virtues in which we 
delighted shall be matured and perfected — where 
all their views of creation which we assisted in 
forming shall be brightened and enlarged — where 
all their hopes in which we participated shall be 
fully realized — where all their holy joys in which 
we indulged along with them, shall become ex- 
quisite, unmingled, and permanent ; and from whose 
delightful and everlasting mansions, where we ex- 
pect to join them, they shall go out no more for 
ever. O my friends, is it not consolatory to think 
that death is not an eternal sleep — that death shall 
not have eternal dominion over those whose depar- 
ture we bewail — that their spirits wing their way to 
the paradise above — that their bodies have a glorious 
resurrection awaiting them — and that he whom we 
dread as the spoiler of our friendships and our loves, 
is but the messenger who conveys our pious rela- 
tives to the realms of bliss and glory unspeakable. 
And while such views are consolatory, is not the 
comfort rendered sweeter when we are also taught 
to be " followers of them, who through faith and pa- 
tience, are inheriting the promises," and to labour 
for the spiritual welfare of those whom death may 
snatch from our embraces ? If death afflict us by 
separating from us our dearest and most valued 
connexions, how anxious should we be that they may 
live here as " the children of the resurrection" and 
the heirs of immortality, and that we ourselves may 



470 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. £0. 



not, by our carelessness, or our impenitence, or our 
unbelief, be cast out, while they are admitted into 
the kingdom of their God and Saviour, Let this 
thought rouse us to activity and diligence in the 
work of the Lord, to personal godliness and fideli- 
ty, and to a benevolent concern for the interests of 
the friends whom we should mourn to lose by death, 
and rejoice to meet again when " death shall be 
swallowed up in victory." 

V. In the fifth place, death blasts the fairest 
prospects of individuals, of families, and of nations. 

We are naturally disposed to speculate on the 
future, to lay plans of improvement and aggrandise- 
ment ; and, whether from reasoning on supposed 
probabilities, or from giving the rein to imagi- 
nation, to anticipate great prosperity for ourselves, 
our friends, or our country. -And it is not the will 
of God that we should be always disappointed. 
Sometimes, however, he is pleased to frustrate our 
surest and our fondest expectations ; and one of the 
instruments by which he accomplishes his object is 
death. Death cuts off an individual ; and all his 
schemes and hopes and achievements perish with 
him in the dust. Or he removes the head of a fa- 
mily ; and the children are scattered, and their pa- 
trimony is lost, and instead of dwelling in opulence 
or comfort, they are cast upon the mercy of an un- 
generous world. Or he strikes down the ruler of a 
vast empire, whose wisdom and influence and ac- 
tivity formed the safeguard of his dominions, and 
whose decease is a signal for internal feuds and fo- 



SEIl. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



471 



reign war. In our own recent experience, my 
friends, we have had a melancholy instance of the 
havoc which death sometimes makes in the pros- 
pects of man. It is not a single disaster that has 
befallen us, but a combination of disasters. And 
their intrinsic magnitude is deeply aggravated by 
the consideration that they are irremediable. Our 
beloved Princess, as an individual, had every rea- 
son to look forward to a length of happy days, she 
was in the possession of many blessings which she 
prized, and she anticipated many more which it on- 
ly required time and opportunity to provide ; but 
(Sod " took away her breath," and all these visions 
of bliss have vanished like the morning cloud. In 
her domestic capacity she was equally affectionate 
and beloved, and there was all the prospect that 
could be desired of increasing comfort and lasting 
endearment ; but she died in an unexpected mo- 
ment, and she has left the object of her best attach- 
ment a solitary and disconsolate mourner. And with 
regard to her connexion with the nation and with 
the crown, what could we have wished for more, 
than the talent with which she was endowed, and 
the spirit that animated her heart, and the virtues 
that adorned her life, and the prospect which she 
afforded of giving birth to a line of princes, who, 
inheriting her excellence and following her example, 
might have reigned mercifully and gloriously over 
these happy lands ? But she has departed, and all our 
hopes are buried in her tomb. Great reason have 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



we, my friends, to contemplate all this with emotions 
of the profoundest sorrow. But though, death be a 
cruel and relentless spoiler, he is a messenger of the 
infinitely wise and good God ; and here he brings 
with him a lesson which it becomes us to learn and 
to practise. He teaches us to put no confidence in 
our own life, or in that of any of the sons or 
daughters of men. He teaches us to recollect how 
feeble are all our efforts, and how short sighted are 
all our best-laid schemes, and how perishable are all 
our most sanguine hopes. He teaches us to remember 
that man, even in the height of his prosperity, and 
in the zenith of his power, is but a mortal whose 
" breath is in his nostrils," and whose " days are 
but a span." He teaches us to look up to God as the 
" disposer of our lot," as the " governor among the 
nations,"as that Being on whose determination every 
event, whether public or private, necessarily de- 
pends. And he teaches us, in characters written, as 
it were, in the dust by dead mens' bones, that we 
have no security for our happiness, but trust in his 
all-wise and righteous administration, and that we 
can have no comfort under the anguish of disap- 
pointed hope, which does not flow from the belief 
of his superintending providence, and from the hope 
of entering into that unsufFering kingdom, where 
none shall ever again taste of death, and where no 
scene of enjoyment shall be overshadowed by its 
dark approach. " O that Ave were wise and under- 
stood these things," and that the Almighty, when 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



473 



he sends death to wither our expectations, and lay 
them prostrate in the dust, would enable us by his 
spirit to " be still and to know that he is God." 

VI. In the last place, death introduces us to 
judgment and to eternity. This is the most im- 
portant view which we can take of it. To regard 
it as dissolving our connexion with time — as de- 
stroying the link between our bodies and our spi- 
rits — as putting a period to the pursuits and plea- 
sures in which we take so deep an interest — as 
levelling all earthly distinctions — as severing the 
most tender ties — as blasting the fairest prospects, 
and disappointing the most fondly cherished hopes — 
all these are affecting views of death, from which 
much valuable instruction may be derived. But it 
is only when we take into view that which succeeds 
death, and think of its consequences in a future and 
an eternal state of being, that we regard it in its 
just character, or are in circumstances to derive 
from it its most impressive and salutary lessons. 
And if our judgment be regulated by the discove- 
ries of the gospel, we shall take this extended and 
comprehensive view of death. Our eye will look 
far beyond the tomb where our ashes are to repose. 
We shall recollect that death is not the extinction 
of being, but a removal from a state of trial to a 
state of awful and unalterable retribution, and that 
according to our present character, it will either 
introduce us into the mansions of endless bliss, or 
consign us to the regions of unutterable despair. 

O then, viewing judgment and eternity in con- 

2 



474 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



SER. 20. 



nexion with death, let us prepare immediate- 
ly, and with all diligence, and on scriptural prin- 
ciples, for giving* in our account to God. We are 
guilty, and cannot stand before him and be justified: 
let us therefore apply in faith, and with earnestness, 
to the blood of Christ whom God hath " set forth 
as a propitiation for sin," and for whose sake he 
hath promised to forgive us all our trespasses. We 
are naturally depraved, and in our natural state are 
unfit for the kingdom of heaven : but let us apply 
for the influences of the holy Spirit who will en- 
lighten and sanctify us, and make us " meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 
Let no difficulty deter, and no allurement seduce 
us from a work so essential to our everlasting wel- 
fare. Let every coming day find us more deeply 
engaged in it ; more attentive to the means by which 
it is to be promoted ; more ready to sacrifice every 
interfering interest, that our souls may be saved in 
" the day of the Lord." And when at any time the 
corrupt propensities of our own hearts, or the blan- 
dishments of an evil and an ensnaring world, tempt 
us to negligence or criminal security, let us confirm 
our resolution, and quicken our diligence, by anti- 
cipating that awful day when God shall 4 ' take away 
our breath," and demand from us " an account of 
our stewardship," and assign us our eternal portion. 
Brethren, the time is short and uncertain, we know 
not when we may die, let us, therefore, set our- 
selves, instantly and cordially, to the work of prepa- 
ration for what is before us : let us be zealous in 

3 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



475 



our endeavours to glorify God, to be useful to our 
neighbour, to maintain a conscience void of offence, 
to cherish that faith which shall be turned into hea- 
venly vision, and to cultivate that " charity which 
thinketh no evil, which sufFereth long and is kind," 
and in the bond of which, purified from all the 
petty jealousies, and resentments, and enmities of 
this vain and evil world, we shall be for ever united 
in the kingdom of our Father and our God. 

Yes, my friends, we are tending to a place where 
strife and hatred are unknown. In this restless 
world, do what we can, we may not be able to 
ward off the attacks of misconception and calumny. 
We may endeavour " as much as lieth in us to live 
peaceably with all men :" we may do our duty faith- 
fully, laboriously, perseveringly: we may study, with 
scrupulous care, to keep our " conscience void of of- 
fence, first towards our God, and then towards our 
brethren and yet after all, or perhaps on that very 
account, we shall neither gain the favour of one 
class of mankind, nor avoid the reproaches and 
misrepresentations of another. Motives will be im- 
puted to us which we never felt. Circumstances 
will be invented or exaggerated to blacken our re- 
putation. The voice of reason and of truth will be 
drowned amidst the clamour of violence and angry 
feeling. Actions that, at the very worst, are but 
errors of judgment, will be confidently set down, and 
malevolently decried, as if they were transgressions 
of the moral law : And what is least tolerable of 
all, to the malignity of known and acknowledged 



4?6 



VIEWS OF DEATH* 



SER. 20. 



foes, there will sometimes be added the treachery 
and ingratitude of those who professed attachment, 
and to whom we have never been wanting either 
in duty or in kindness. Be it so. It only affords 
us an additional proof of the depravity of human 
nature, and of the utter worthlessness of human fa- 
vour. But the path of duty and of comfort is plain 
before us. We must continue, my friends, to act 
agreeably to the convictions of our own minds, and 
to the standard of duty, according to the measure of 
light in which we are enabled to view it. The 
moment we go into the principle of pleasing men ra- 
ther than God, that moment we merit the censures, 
which, in other circumstances, are alleviated by the 
consciousness of their being undeserved. We must 
commit our cause to " Him who judgeth righteous 
judgment," and to whom we must give account at 
last. We must confide in Him, that if he see it to 
be good for us, he will, even in this life, remove the 
prejudices, and soften the asperities of those who 
have hated and traduced us. And at all events, we 
can look forward to the grave, which is at least one 
refuge, and not a distant one, from the persecutions 
and strifes of this miserable world, for there at 
length " the wicked cease from troubling, and the 
weary are at rest." There is a silence there, which 
our enemies cannot disturb ; and peradventure, 
when we are reposing in that bed of peace, they by 
whom we have been calumniated, may be touched 
by remorse, and may lament, with unavailing grief, 
the wrongs which they have done and cannot re- 



SER. 20. 



VIEWS OF DEATH. 



477 



pair. But death shall be destroyed at last: And 
there is a resurrection ; and there is a judgment to 
come. Then the veil of ignorance shall be taken 
away : and the arts of wilful misrepresentation shall 
be exposed : and the sentence of truth shall be pro- 
nounced : and that mercy will be experienced from 
God, which is here denied by man. Heaven is the 
abode of charity ; and there all our contentions 
shall be forgotten : and, united in the bonds of ever- 
lasting love, we shall join together in the grateful, 
and harmonious, and never-ending song of praise, 
to Him whose kindness has never forsaken us, and 
who has provided " a rest for* the people of God." 



478 



SERMON XXI. 



CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 

1 cor. xv. 58. 

" Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your 
labour is not in vain in the Lord. 13 

The " work of the Lord" means all that you have to 
believe and do, as disciples of Jesus Christ. It im- 
plies the principles you are to maintain, the affec- 
tions you are to cherish, the virtues you are to cul- 
tivate, according* to the lessons and prescriptions of 
his authority. It embraces your practical confor- 
mity to the whole of that rule, various and com- 
prehensive as it is, which you find laid down in the 
pages of his word. 

To you, who are his real followers, this work 
must not only be known, but familiar. For unless 
you have been acquainted with it, you could not have 
accepted of Him, whom it recognises as your Lord 
and Saviour ; and if you were not intimately con- 



SER. 21. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



479 



versant with its details, this would indicate such an 
indifference to its importance and obligations, as to 
show that you acknowledged Him in profession on- 
ly, and not in reality. The exhortation of the 
apostle is addressed to true Christians. And such 
of you as profess this character, are supposed to be 
aware of what you are required to aim at, and to 
be distinguished by, in order to substantiate your 
claim to it, and to be actually engaged in the pur- 
suit of those spiritual excellencies of which it con- 
sists. 

But, besides having learned what this character is, 
and fairly and seriously entered upon its duties, it 
is necessary that you be " stedfast and unmoveable, 
always abounding in it." This is the duty, with 
respect "to the work of the Lord," which is here in- 
culcated upon all of you, who are desirous to enjoy 
those advantages with which it is now connected, 
or of which it is to be ultimately productive, in the 
dispensation of the great and gracious Master by 
whom it has been prescribed. 

" Be ye stedfast and immoveable." Having once 
engaged in the work of the Lord, you must never 
desert it, — as if you could, even at the most ad- 
vanced stage of its progress, reckon yourselves ei- 
ther released from its activities, or free from its re- 
straints. You must continue firm in feeling for it 
that devoted attachment which its honourable nature, 
and its vast importance, demand from you ; and you 
must be constant in attending to all the multiplied 
occupations in which it requires you to be practically 



480 CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 

employed. Nor is it enough that you merely per- 
severe in the general undertaking — you must be 
" unmoveable" as well as " stedfast." You must not 
allow your attention or y our efforts to be withdrawn, 
for ever so short a period, from any one depart- 
ment of it, however inconsiderable it maybe deemed. 
There must be such a full purpose of heart, and 
such a resolute, unwearied, incessant endeavour, 
for its promotion and accomplishment, as shall pre- 
vent you, either from abandoning it altogether, or 
from carrying it on with indifference or remiss- 
ness. You are not, on any account, to cease from 
the minutest, or from the greatest of its labours, 
till the whole be finished according to the will of 
God, and you be fully meet for passing from the 
sphere of labour and service into " the joy of your 
Lord." 

Such is the obligation you have to fulfil in regard 
to the work of the Lord, — arising, at once, from 
its own intrinsic nature, from the express terms of 
the commandment which enjoins it, and from the 
great ends which it is destined and calculated to 
subserve. 

The exhortation evidently supposes, that this 
work will be attended with many and formidable 
difficulties. And, indeed, every one who knows 
any thing of what a conscientious performance 
of it demands, and is, at the same time, aware 
of his personal incompetency to the task, — every 
one who is, in whatever degree, experiment- 
ally acquainted with it, — will immediately perceive 



SER. 21. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 481 

and acknowledge, that the supposition is correct. 
It demands from us a multitude of sacrifices and ex- 
ertions, which we are naturally unwilling- to make. 
It requires us to mortify that pride of understand- 
ing- and of heart, which predominates so much in 
our fallen race. It requires us to " crucify the flesh, 
with ail its lusts and affections," — to deny our- 
selves to those gratifications to which we are most 
attached, — to renounce, freely and for ever, the 
dearest and most inveterate habit, which is not 
sanctioned by the divine will. It requires us to 
engage in pursuits and exercises to which our 
minds are naturally averse, — to study an exact and 
spiritual conformity to the law of God,— to dis- 
charge, with minute and scrupulous fidelity, all the 
duties which it enjoins, — and to keep our hearts, 
as well as our lives, uncontaminated by the pollu- 
tions of the world. And then, while our in- 
herent weakness and corruption render compliance 
with these requirements no easy task, we are 
beset, on every side, with numerous and power- 
ful temptations, to backsliding and apostacy from 
that cause which we have been commissioned to 
prosecute and maintain. We have to struggle with 
spiritual enemies, who artfully insinuate into our 
minds, the thought, that it is a hard and unprofit- 
able thing to serve God. Ungodly men direct 
against us the shafts of that profane ridicule, which 
has succeeded in driving so many from the ways of 
piety and virtue. And worldly pleasure, in a thou- 
sand captivating forms, addresses itself to our senses 

2 i 



482 



CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 



and our passions, and, by every method of allure- 
ment, solicits us to barter a good conscience for 
forbidden joy. In short, even when placed in the 
most favourable circumstances for carrying forward 
our Christian vocation, we are exposed to innumer- 
able seductions from the devil, the world, and the 
flesh • and must expect to suffer much, if we would 
faithfully and successfully perform what our divine 
Lord has given us to do. 

Now, the exhortation of the apostle has a pecu- 
liar reference to these circumstances. It is an ad- 
monition, not to yield to their influence. We are 
not treated as if, having trusted that " the Lord is 
gracious," and reposed our confidence in him, and 
begun our course of obedience, we required no far- 
ther advice and expostulation. Our dangers are 
pointed out — we are reminded of the necessity of 
being firm and stable in the midst of them — we 
are commanded and urged to act on the principle 
of an unceasing determination not to fall at any 
time from our stedfastness, nor to move from the 
station of duty, whatever and wherever it may be, 
which has been allotted to us. In spite of every 
discouragement — in spite of all opposition — in spite 
of the severest hardships, and the most tempting al- 
lurements, we are to prosecute the duties of our 
profession. Nothing will justify us in becoming ne- 
gligent or idle ; and far less in faithlessly or pusilla- 
nimously abandoning the engagements which have 
been authoritatively imposed upon us, and to which 
we have solemnly committed ourselves. There 

6 



SER. 21. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



483 



may be difficulties — but we must surmount them. 
There may be enemies — but we must overcome 
them. There may be temptations — but we must 
resist them. There may be distresses — but we 
must bear them. There may be persecutions — but 
we must encounter, and endure, and withstand 
them. We must be ready to suffer the loss of all 
thing's — " to pluck out a right eye, or cut off a right 
hand" — to part with life itself, rather than renounce 
a cherished confidence in the cross of Jesus, or re- 
turn again to the sins we have forsaken, or fail 
in the uncompromising discharge of any of our mo- 
ral duties, or desert the ordinances by which God 
is honoured and our spiritual improvement ad- 
vanced, or do any thing which amounts to a dere- 
liction of that holy service to which we have been 
called by divine grace, and to which we have been 
consecrated by our own voluntary deed. From 
this service, and from all that is essential to it, no- 
thing whatever, — be it violence or be it allurement, 
be it the pain to which it may subject us, or the 
gratification which it forbids us, — nothing must ever 
be allowed to detach us, till He to whom it is ren- 
dered, shall be pleased to release us from our toils 
and our sorrows. It is thus we must be " stedfast 
and unmoveable." 

But the apostle further exhorts us to be " always 
abounding in the work of the Lord." By this he 
means, that we are not only to persevere, but also 
to improve in it ; that our zeal in carrying it for- 
ward is to burn with a brighter and a steadier 



484 CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 

flame ; that our diligence is to become more uni- 
form, and our efforts more conspicuous ; that our 
virtues are to multiply with our opportunities, and 
to be invigorated by our experience ; that our at- 
tainments in religious and moral excellence are to 
advance nearer and nearer to that perfection after 
which the gospel teaches, and encourages, and sti- 
mulates us to aspire. 

It is to be expected, indeed, that if we seriously 
engage, and steadily persevere, in the work of the 
Lord, improvement will of course follow. The 
very exercise which our good principles receive, 
will operate in giving them additional strength, 
and stability, and influence. Temptation to sin, 
by being frequently and successfully resisted, will 
gradually lose its power to seduce our affections, 
and to lead us astray. Duties which have been 
resolutely and habitually performed, will become 
comparatively easy, and permit us to take a more 
extensive range in the field of usefulness. The 
growing comforts that we derive from the faith, and 
obedience, and hope of the gospel, will induce us to 
live in closer intimacy with the Redeemer, in a more 
diligent observance of his precepts, and in a more 
lively anticipation of his second coming. That 
which was once the evil heart of unbelief will come 
to take clearer and more impressive views of those 
great truths which tend to purify its desires and to 
elevate its purposes. Sin will daily acquire a more 
loathsome and revolting aspect. Holiness will as- 
sume features of increasing loveliness and attraction. 



SER. c 2l. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



485 



And the believing- eye, fixed in frequent and devout 
contemplation on heaven, will realize there such pro- 
spects of blessedness and glory, as shall elevate the 
soul insensibly above the vanities of this world, assi- 
milate it to the spirits of the just made perfect, fill it 
with the ambition of shining" in all the beauties of 
that holiness with which they are adorned, and lead 
it by degrees to " purify itself even as God is pure." 

In this light, the Scriptures represent the Chris- 
tian character. They speak of it as advancing from 
one degree of perfection to another. They com- 
pare it to the natural life, which begins with the 
weakness of the babe, and goes on by successive and 
imperceptible steps, to the stature, and vigour, and 
maturity of a perfect man. They compare it to a 
race, in which the competitors redouble their efforts, 
and accelerate their speed, as they approach the 
goal at which the prize is to be obtained. And 
they compare it to the course of the sun in the fir- 
mament, who increases in splendour as he ascends, 
and " shines more and more unto the perfect day." 

Nor is there any period at which this course of 
progressive improvement is permitted to stop. The 
very nature of the Christian's work forbids that there 
should be any pause or cessation in its progress. There 
is always occasion for proceeding with what has been 
already begun, securing what has been already acquir- 
ed, and improving what has been already attained ; 
there is always some defect to be supplied — some al- 
lurement to be repelled — some corruption to be sub. 
dued — some grace to be cherished and invigorated— 
some evil to be removed — some excellence to be 



486 CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 



added. The motives to holy exertion and benevo- 
lent enterprise, not only continue to operate, but 
increase in variety and strength \ and in proportion 
to their number and their force, they will secure a 
greater and a growing multiplicity of those acts of 
faith, and piety, and righteousness, and self-denial? 
and charity, by which every true Christian must be 
distinguished. And no man who feels the power 
of genuine Christianity, and who has embraced the 
truth in the love of it, and who surrenders himself to 
those spiritual influences which it exercises over 
him, can fail to be sensible that it is a part of his 
vocation to bring forth fruit continually, and to 
bring it forth in greater abundance, and in greater 
maturity, as a tree planted in the garden of the 
Lord, on which, from day to day, the cares of 
the spiritual husbandman are employed. Even 
the apostle Paul himself, who had laboured so 
long, so faithfully, so diligently, so acceptably, 
and so successfully in the work of the Lord, 
did at no time count himself to have appre- 
hended : he did not think that " he had already 
attained, or that he was already perfect ; but for- 
getting the things that were behind, and reaching 
forth to those things that were before, he pressed 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus.'' And surely, if a man so 
high and so rich in the acquirements of Christian 
principle and Christian practice, deemed it incum- 
bent to rise yet higher, and grow yet richer, in 
the measure of his heavenly calling, much more 
must it be incumbent upon us who are still but fol- 



SER. 21. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



lowing him at a humble distance, to < 5 give all di- 
ligence, to add to our faith, virtue, and to vir- 
tue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; 
and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, god- 
liness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and 
to brotherly kindness, charity ; — that these things 
being in us, and abounding, we may be found nei- 
ther barren nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord." 

Yes, my friends, this is the duty which you have 
to perform. Regarding the work of the Lord as 
most honourable and glorious in itself — as contri- 
buting to the perfection of your moral nature, and 
in fact essentially involving it-— as assigned to you by 
Him from whom you received your being with all 
its capacities and advantages — as endeared to your 
feelings by the grace and condescension which call 
you to it, as well as by the dignity and the holiness 
which characterise it — and as the only source of ge- 
nuine comfort in this world, and the only prepara- 
tion for the happiness of that which is to come — re- 
garding it in these lights, you will never reckon your- 
selves to have laboured in it with sufficient ardour 
or with adequate success, but you " will go on from 
strength to strength, till you appear before God in 
Zion." It is a part of your Christian work that you 
" live by faith in the Son of God." You will strive, 
then, that your faith may become stronger — more 
lively, and more appropriating, and more purifying ; 
that you may be less biassed by those feelings of self- 
righteousness which are so apt to intrude between 
you and Christ ; that you may have brighter views, 
and more impressive convictions of his all-sufficiency ; 



488 



CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 



and that you may repose a more cordial, and undivid- 
ed, and delighted trust in him, as all that your souls 
can desire for their eternal salvation. It is a part of 
your Christian work that you exercise " repentance 
towards God you will study then to feel more re- 
gret and humility under a sense of your unworthi- 
ness ; to have more affecting impressions of the odi- 
ousness and the evil of sin ; to hate it ' i with a more 
perfect hatred ;" to guard against the commission of 
it with increasing jealousy and care ; to be more 
watchful of the purity of your hearts " out of which 
are the issues of life and to be more determined in 
your purposes of immediate amendment, and in your 
endeavours after a better obedience* — It is a part of 
your Christian work that you discharge all the va- 
rious duties incumbent on you in your different cir- 
cumstances and relations. You will be anxious, 
then, that none of them be, at any time, disregard- 
ed or forgotten ; that you may be more and more 
convinced of their obligation and necessity ; that you 
may have a more decided inclination to perform 
them ; that you may attend to them under the in- 
fluence of purer motives ; that you may be more 
industrious, more ardent, more resolute, more con- 
scientious in fulfilling them ; and that you produce 
in rich and increasing abundance, all those " fruits 
of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the 
glory and praise of God." It is a part of your 
Christian work that you make a diligent use of the 
appointed means of grace and salvation. You will 
then endeavour to apply to these with still greater 
regularity and zeal — with more devotion of heart — 



SER. 21. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



489 



with more purity of attention — with stronger de- 
sires and firmer purposes of improvement ; to take 
more pleasure as well as to be more conscientious in 
reading the word of God > to be more observant of 
the sanctity of his Sabbaths ; to wait upon him with 
more piety of feeling in the services of his house ; 
to be more frequent and more fervent in your ap- 
plications at " the throne of grace to apply these 
exercises more steadily and more faithfully to those 
practical ends for which they are recommended and 
enjoined ; and to engage in them in such a manner, 
as not only to promote your own personal advan- 
tage and well-being, but to afford a more open and 
unequivocal testimony against the prevailing irreli- 
gion and profaneness of an ungodly world, and 
against the hollow professions and compromising 
practices of nominal Christians. 

Thus have I attempted a short illustration of the 
duty prescribed in my text, with respect to the work 
of the Lord : We must abide by this work — no con- 
sideration must prevail upon us to abandon any 
part of it — and we must make a progressive im- 
provement in all its branches — till we can say with 
our Saviour, " I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to do." 

But, perhaps, some will say, " We know that this 
is our work, but we feel ourselves unable to accom- 
plish it — it is in many respects difficult and labori- 
ous, and painful — and we are conscious of no re- 
sources in ourselves that are at all commensurate to 
the exigencies of the case." All this is true \ and it is 
well that you are sensible of it. O that the convic- 



490 



CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 



tion were more lively and more habitual in your 
minds! for it would unquestionably lead you to 
apply with greater earnestness to Him who will 
" strengthen you with all might through the Spi- 
rit/' and make you " more than conquerors" over 
the most formidable opposition you can be called to 
encounter. Yes, my brethren, He who has assign- 
ed you the work will give you power to effect it. 
His language is, " my grace is sufficient for you, 
my strength is made perfect in your weakness." In 
obeying his commandments, you ought not to dis- 
trust the faithfulness of the promises with which 
he accompanies them. And, indeed, if you be 
Christians, you know from experience that he is 
both able and ready to help you, to the utmost 
of your need. There is no mockery in saying to 
you, weak and insufficient as you naturally are, 
" work out your own salvation" — for we have to 
add this compatible and encouraging assurance, that 
" it is God who worketh in you both to will and 
to do of his own good pleasure." The most liberal 
help to our spiritual infirmities is provided by the 
gospel. The Holy Spirit has been procured for us 
by the death of Christ : He is the Spirit of wis- 
dom and of might ; and he is promised to them 
that ask him. Indeed it is a part of your work 
as Christians, to depend upon his influences, and, 
in token of your dependence, humbly to suppli- 
cate them. Cherish this dependence, then— lift up 
this supplication to the Hearer of prayer, and you 
shall receive from him according to your need. 
Trust in the Lord Jehovah, and you shall be " as 



SER. 21. 



CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



491 



Mount Zion which cannot be removed, but which 
abideth for ever." " Wait thus upon the Lord ; 
and you shall mount up on wings as eagles — you 
shall run and not be weary — you shall walk and 
not faint." Upheld by him who is the strength of 
Israel, you shall advance with vigour and alacrity in 
the way of his commandments, you shall be stedfast 
and immoveable, always abounding in every good 
work — till finally you shall be able to adopt the 
language of Paul, and say, " I have finished my 
course — I have kept the faith — henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness." 

And now let me direct your attention for a lit- 
tle to the motive by which the apostle encourages 
us to comply with his exhortation : " Forasmuch 
as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in 
the Lord." 

" Our labour shall not be in vain." If we be "sted- 
fast and immoveable, always abounding in the work 
of the Lord," he will bestow upon us a reward. He 
might, in the plenitude of his sovereign authority, have 
demanded our utmost exertions, without conferring 
any recompense. And, indeed, when we reflect on 
the poverty of our services, and on the sinfulness 
which mingles with every one of them, we have 
reason to wonder that he does not reject us as un- 
profitable and unworthy. But he mercifully be- 
holds us in Christ, his beloved Son, who is '* the Lord 
our righteousness and strength." And in consider- 
ation of what Christ has done and suffered on our 
account and in our stead, he condescends to accept 
of our faithful labours in the cause of truth and 



492 



CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 



godliness, and to crown our perseverance in them 
with a reward suited to our attainments, and to the 
riches of his own grace. 

The work of the Lord, indeed, may be said to 
carry its own reward along with it, even in a pre- 
sent world. There is " joy and peace in believing." 
There is a delight in obeying the law of the Lord 
after the inward man. There is a gladness when 
" the light of God's countenance" shines upon us, 
which the men of the world know nothing of, even 
when " their corn and their wine do most abound." 
And such is the power of the " hope that enters in 
within the veil," and such are the " comforts of the 
Holy Ghost," that those by whom they are experi- 
enced — and they are in some measure experienced 
by all the faithful servants of God— are not only 
happy when their outward fortunes are prosper- 
ous, but enabled to rejoice in the midst of tribula- 
tion. 

But the reward here mentioned is evidently fu- 
ture. The exhortation with which the promise of 
it is connected, follows those cheering and glorious 
prospects of the resurrection which the apostle had 
been holding out in the previous part of the chapter ; 
and the resurrection of the saints is always identified 
with that celestial felicity to which it is a preliminary. 
It is a resurrection to life and immortality — to sin- 
less purity — to spiritual enjoyment — to glory, bright 
and everlasting. It is therefore the happiness of 
heaven which the apostle teaches us to anticipate as 
the termination and the reward of our constancy in 
the work of the Lord. 



SER. 21. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



493 



And that is a happiness that may well animate 
and encourage us to undergo any toils, and to en- 
dure any hardships, which can ever belong to such a 
service. For it is a happiness accommodated to 
the noblest capacities of our nature ; arising from 
the progressive and rapid improvement of our in- 
tellectual faculties, — from the indefinite extension of 
our knowledge of all that is excellent and sublime 
in the universe — from the state of purity and vigour 
to which our moral powers shall be raised when 
delivered from the bondage of corruption, and al- 
lowed to expatiate in a sinless world — and from 
the unwearied and unceasing exercise of our best 
affections on those objects and pursuits which are 
full of holiness and love, and peace and joy. — It is 
a happiness altogether perfect in its own nature : 
flowing from communion with that Being who is 
the fountain of all goodness and of all grace ; con- 
sisting in pleasures that Divinity alone can commu- 
nicate, and that Heaven alone can furnish ; un- 
mixed with any of those evils, and undisturbed by 
that consciousness of guilt, which mar the sweetest 
of our comforts upon earth ; and so exalted and so 
exquisite, so rich and so unbounded, as to baffle 
all the efforts of the human mind to conceive or to 
describe it. It is a happiness everlasting in its du- 
ration — to be enjoyed without interruption and 
without end. It is a " kingdom that cannot be 
moved " an inheritance incorruptible, as well as 
undefiled " a crown of glory that fadeth not 
away." It is immortal as the soul of man, and eter- 
nal as the throne of God. It is a happiness secur- 



494 



CHR1SITAN PERSEVERANCE. SER. 21. 



ed to every believer beyond the possibility of dis- 
appointment or loss. Purchased by the blood of 
Christ, and promised in the word of truth, and laid 
up in store by him who is Lord of all, it may be 
anticipated with unsuspecting- and unreserved con- 
fidence. " Ye know, says the apostle, that your 
labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." The 
riches of your Redeemer's love might have war- 
ranted you to expect it ; but He removes all doubt 
and anxiety that may arise in your minds, by con- 
descending through the words of our text, to pledge 
his faithfulness to bestow the reward. Sooner will he 
deny himself, than frustrate the hopes with which he 
has inspired and encouraged you. It may still be 
necessary for you to continue your labours. You 
may still have to encounter difficulties, and perse- 
cutions, and hardships. Still may there be a great 
deal for you to do and a great deal to suffer. But 
fear not. Be not cast down. " Possess your souls in 
patience." " Rejoice in your tribulations." "Your 
witness is in heaven ; your record is on high ;" your 
" names are written in the book of life ;" and ere 
long you shall have the blessedness of those who, 
having " lived in the Lord, die also in the Lord, 
who rest from their labours, and whose works do 
follow them." Persevere then in your Christian 
course. Be not " of them who draw back unto 
perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of 
the soul." " Be stedfast and unmoveable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as 
ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in 
the Lord." Amen. 



495 



SERMON XXII* 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. 

2 TIMOTHY iii. 13. 

" Continue thou in the things ichich thou hast learned, and hast been 
assured of, knowing of idiom thou hast learned them." 

The writer of these words, knowing that he was 
about to be " offered up," and that " the time of his 
departure was at hand," was not willing that one 
whom he regarded as his son in the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, should want that peculiar inducement to 
pastoral fidelity, and Christian perseverance, which 
arises from a parting injunction. He calls upon 
him, therefore, to remember the instructions he had 
received, and to continue in them ; and he gives 
force to the exhortation, by reminding him of the 
authority on which they were founded. 

* Preached in the New Greyfriars' Church, on the afternoon of Sab- 
bath, 12th June 1814, at the close of his ministry in that charge. 



496 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 



In like manner, I would address you, my bre- 
thren ; and as the pastoral relation, which for some 
years has subsisted between us, is about to be dis- 
solved, I trust that you will bear with me, while I 
say a few words in reference to our present cir- 
cumstances. 

I return my best thanks to you all, elders and 
people, for the attention and kindness I have uni- 
formly experienced since I came among- you. Be 
assured, I shall always retain a grateful recollec- 
tion of it. It will ever afford me the sincerest 
pleasure to hear of your welfare. I pray that the 
Lord may bless you with every temporal blessing ; 
but my most earnest prayer is, that you may be all 
saved — that not one of you may be lost — that we 
may all meet in glory. 

It is from no affectation of humility I confess 
many omissions and shortcomings of duty. I hope, 
however, I have not failed so much, as to prevent 
you from complying with my request, for your 
indulgence and forgiveness. And O, unite your 
supplications with mine, for the forgiveness of 
that great Being who has entrusted me with the 
ministry of the gospel, to whom I must one day 
render " an account of my stewardship," and on 
whose decision the everlasting destiny of every 
one of us depends. May he grant, of his in- 
finite mercy, that my " lack of service" may be 
supplied by richer and more abundant communi- 
cations of his grace, and that, in the luminous and 

3 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. 

efficacious teaching of his Holy Spirit, you may 
be fully compensated for the defects of one who 
feelingly acknowledges, that his labours have not 
been commensurate either with his duty or his de- 
sire. 

Yet, I bless God, that my endeavours have not 
been altogether without success. I know that I 
neither natter myself nor you, when I say, that 
some portion of good has been done. And you 
will believe me when I tell you, that this af- 
fords me a pleasure which I would not exchange 
for a thousand worlds. To be the instrument of 
converting, or of edifying, or of preparing, even 
one soul for heaven and eternity, is, in my estima- 
tion, an honour infinitely purer and more exalted, 
than all the achievements which are limited to 
earth and time, can possibly confer. Let the man 
of science boast of the discoveries by which he has 
improved the arts of life, and promoted the civili- 
zation of society. Let the warrior triumph in 
the multitude and splendour of the conquests which 
his prowess has obtained. Let the patriot and 
philanthropist exult in having given freedom and 
prosperity to half the globe. I envy not the dis- 
tinctions they have thus acquired, if there be a 
single individual among you, however poor and 
lowly, to whom, as a moral and accountable being, 
I have been useful. In this I rejoice, yea, and 
will rejoice to my latest moments, that I have 
" not laboured among you in vain," — that the doc- 

°2 K 



498 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. f22. 



trine which I have inculcated has produced some 
measure of saving and sanctifying effect— that there 
are some of my beloved hearers to whom it has 
been already blessed, and to whom it shall finally 
prove "a savour of life unto life." And why 
should not I be glad in this ? " For what is my 
hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even 
ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at his 
coming ? For ye are my glory and my joy." 

But far be from my heart, and from yours, any 
proud and lofty notions of our own power, as if 
we, by ourselves, could give efficacy to that gospel, 
of which we are only the imperfect channel, or the 
unworthy objects. " Paul may plant, and Apollos 
may water, but it is God that giveth the increase." 
I ask you, therefore, to join with me in ascribing 
all the praise to Him. " The treasure" has been 
committed to " an earthen vessel," but " the excel- 
lency and the power" belong to that Being, by 
" whose grace alone ye are what ye are." And 
blessed be His glorious name, for ever and 
ever, that the word spoken has profited, in mak- 
ing you " wise unto salvation," and in " buildings 
you up, and preparing you for an inheritance among 
all them that are sanctified !" 

Suffer, I beseech you, for a little, the word of 
exhortation. And let me address myself, first, 
to those who, in the course of my ministry, have 
been brought to " the knowledge of the truth 
as it is in Jesus Christ." Beware of returning to 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER^ FAREWELL. 499 

the darkness and the danger from which you have 
been rescued. Be not " of them who draw back 
unto perdition, but of them who believe to the 
saving of the soul." You would not be guilty of the 
crime of apostacy, — you cannot even think of it 
without trembling and anxiety. By the grace of 
God, you are safely landed on a peaceful and 
happy shore ; and will you plunge again into 
the perils of the dark and stormy deep ? You 
have been made to exult in the sacred " liberty 
wherewith Christ makes his people free \ n and will 
you again consent to be immured in the gloomy 
dungeons of sin, to be bound in its galling fetters, 
to be doomed to do its degrading work, and, 
at last, to receive its wages which is death? 
You have been permitted to look with the eye 
of hope into the paradise of God, and to antici- 
pate its joys which are unspeakable, and its glories 
which are unfading ; and will you now renounce 
the exalted prospect — will you turn away your eyes 
from beholding scenes so lovely and magnificent — 
will you abandon all your interest in that rich in- 
heritance, and again seek for happiness in the vain, 
the fleeting, the sinful pleasures of a world, which 
can give you no peace here, and must abandon you 
to misery hereafter ? O, no, you cannot be so cruel 
to your own souls. You cannot be so cruel to those 
who " watch for your souls," and whose highest 
satisfaction is derived from seeing you move onward 
in the path that leads to heaven. You cannot be so 



500 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 

cruel to the church which is deeply interested in 
your conduct and destiny, and to whose triumphs 
you have so honourably contributed. You cannot 
be so cruel to your pious friends, who have prayed 
for you, and wept for you, and whose prayers have 
been answered, and whose tears have been wiped 
away, by your conversion unto God. You cannot 
be so cruel to the angels in heaven, " among whom 
there was joy" over you when you repented, and 
who would sorrow at your fall. And you cannot 
be so cruel to that Saviour who died that you might 
live, who has " called you out of darkness into his 
marvellous light" — and who, in the tenderness with 
which he says to you, " will ye also go away ?" de- 
monstrates how earnest is his desire that you " for- 
sake not your first love," but continue " faithful to 
him unto death." By all that is dear to you in time 
and in eternity — by all that is precious in the sight of 
God, and of angels, and of saints, let me conjure 
you to remain stedfast in your attachment to the 
Saviour, in whom you have trusted, and to whom 
you have committed the keeping of your immortal 
interests. You have embraced Jesus Christ as your 
Redeemer — you have embraced him, because you 
are convinced that he came from God — because you 
felt your absolute need of him — because you per- 
ceived his suitableness to the circumstances and ne- 
cessities of your condition. But the evidences of 
his divine mission which satisfied you at first, have 
lost nothing of their clearness and their force. The 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER^ FAREWELL. 501 



more you examine the state of human nature and 
of your own hearts, the more forcibly will you feel 
that if you are without him, you must also be " with- 
out God and without hope." And the more you 
contemplate the perfections of his character and the 
nature of his salvation, the more distinctly and im- 
pressively will you see that they who have taken 
him as their Saviour, must have every thing which 
their souls can desire, or wdiich their situation de- 
mands. Let the same reasons, then, which con- 
strained you to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, de- 
termine you to " hold fast the beginning of your 
confidence stedfast unto the end." 

Continue to believe in him — to love him — to obey 
him. Adhere to him with uninterrupted fidelity and 
unconquerable zeal. Better never to have heard of 
Christ, than after having heard of him, and seen 
him in all the grace and glory of his character, and 
accepted him as your Saviour and your King — to 
cast away your confidence— to break your engage- 
ments — and deliberately to prefer the yoke of Satan 
to His. But " be faithful to the death, and Christ will 
give you a crown of life." This is the promise by 
which he supports and animates you in the path of 
righteousness; and he is willing, he is able, he is 
faithful, to perform all that he has promised. The 
reward may be distant — and yet it is not so distant, 
but that faith may realize it, and hope in some mea- 
sure enjoy it, even here. And when it is received, 
how glorious — how exceeding great is it ! It is rich 



502 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 

as the benevolence, divine as the nature, and ever- 
lasting as the duration of Him who bestows it. It 
is true, my friends, that you may expect many trials, 
in maintaining your adherence to Christ. These, 
I am persuaded, you have already experienced ; 
and you may find it hard and difficult to bear 
them. And yet I may ask if you have not experi- 
enced, amidst them all, a heartfelt joy which you 
never experienced before, even " when your corn 
and your wine did most abound ?" A mind at peace 
with God, and with itself, has in it a source of sa- 
tisfaction and delight which no evil can impair — 
which no calamity can destroy. And if, in past 
times, you have known this fact experimentally, 
trust me when I tell you, from divine authority, 
that you shall continue to know it experimentally, 
in every succeeding stage of your progress through 
this wilderness. For " the peace of God, which 
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts 
and minds through Christ Jesus." 

But I would place your encouragement to perse- 
vere, in spite of difficulties and dangers, on yet a 
higher ground. Let the opposition which you may 
encounter from within and from without, be more 
formidable than your experience has ever known, 
or than your fears have ever painted — still I 
would say, persevere and be not afraid. " He who 
is for you is infinitely greater than all that can be 
against you." He who is for you is "the Lord from 
heaven." You cannot doubt his love, for he loved 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. 503 

you even to the death of the cross. You cannot 
doubt his power, for it was he who made the worlds* 
and it was he who created your soul again from the 
dark chaos of sin. Trust in him then — apply to 
him — live by faith in him, and he will make you 
" more than conquerors over all your enemies." He 
will give you victory over the corruptions and de- 
ceitfulness of your own hearts — over the snares of 
an evil and fascinating world — over the scorn and 
persecutions of ungodly men — over the temptations 
of the wicked one — over the fear of death and over 
the power of the grave. In difficulties and in 
darkness he will guide you by the counsels of his 
wisdom. In weakness and in danger he will pro- 
tect you with the arm of his everlasting strength. 
In sorrow he will pour the consolations of his Spi- 
rit into your wounded soul. And during the whole 
course of your pilgrimage, he will watch over you 
with unremitting care, and " keep you by his 
mighty power through faith unto eternal salva- 
tion." 

I would now address myself to those Christians to 
whom I have been useful, by the ministry of the 
gospel, in imparting comfort and edification. 

I would remind you, my friends, and I beseech 
you to bear it in your remembrance, that whatever 
comfort and whatever edification you have received 
through my ministry, has all been derived from the 
sacred Scriptures : — whatever it may be " that you 
have learned and been assured of," your knowledge 
and your assurance have all flowed from this divine 



.504 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 



source. If I have been the means of wiping away 
one tear of sorrow from your eye, of casting one 
ray of spiritual light into your understanding, of in- 
vigorating one principle in your hearts, or of improv- 
ing one virtue in your character, these effects have 
been produced by the power of this blessed book. 
It has been my uniform endeavour to preach to you 
not " the enticing words of man's wisdom," which 
never did, and never can, save a soul, but only the ge- 
nuine unadulterated word of God, as revealed to us 
by Christ and his apostles. I have laboured to incul- 
cate upon your minds suitable impressions of its 
truth, its excellence, its importance, and its autho- 
rity, and so far as I am aware, — if I have at any 
time done otherwise, may God forgive me ! — every 
doctrine I have taught, and every precept I have en- 
forced, every promise I have unfolded, and every 
prospect I have set before you, have been taken 
from the pages of this volume, which the Almighty 
has given by inspiration, which contains all " the 
words of eternal life," and out of which there is no 
light, no purity, no comfort, no happiness, for fallen 
and sinful men. 

I cannot, therefore, give you an advice of greater 
moment, or one more consistent with the tenor of 
my ministrations, or more suitable to the views of 
the apostle, as these are expressed in the succeeding 
context, than this, that you hold fast and close by 
your Bible. Peruse it with frequency, with se- 
riousness, with diligence, and with self-application. 
Treasure up its precious truths in your memory. 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER^ FAREWELL. 605 

Let them be the subject of your deep and habitual 
meditation. Apply to them for consolation and 
guidance. Yield yourselves to their purifying in- 
fluence 5 and in whatever circumstances you are 
placed, whatever trials you are called to undergo, 
whatever duties you are appointed to perform, 
never for a moment lose sight of your Bible. Let 
it be your study by day, and your song by night. 
Let it be your companion in society and in soli- 
tude. Though you abandon every thing else, keep 
your Bible ; believe it, love it, read it, and ye shall be 
happy. It is the light of your souls ; it is the source 
of your joy ; it is the ground of your hope ; it is 
the well out of which ye are to draw the waters of 
life and salvation. 

But not the half of my object in giving you this 
advice is gained unless I add, that the profound and 
affectionate regard to the Bible which I have re- 
commended, must pervade all the religious exer- 
cises in which you engage, and all the religious 
conduct which you maintain. To this standard you 
must bring every thing which may be employed to 
influence your judgment, your heart, or your life. 
Nothing is good either in opinion or in practice 
which is contrary to its spirit or its letter, and 
which is not dictated or sanctioned by them. Is 
there any sentiment current in the world which, 
from its apparent innocence or expediency, you 
are tempted to adopt ? Give it no quarter till you 
have brought it to the test of your Bible, and ascer- 
tained that it accords with what is written there. 



506 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 

Is there any fashion into which the example of your 
friends or your superiors has a tendency to betray 
you ? Avoid it, till you have found not merely 
that your Bible does not expressly forbid it, but 
that you can embrace it consistently with the 
maxims which your Bible prescribes, and the cha- 
racter which it requires. Does any worldly plea- 
sure or amusement invite you to indulge in it ? Re- 
frain from the indulgence till you have consulted 
your Bible, and found it indubitably consistent with 
that heavenly-mindedness which it is the object of 
the Bible to cherish, and with that dignity of de- 
portment to which the Bible teaches you to aspire. 
Do you peruse books for the purpose of improving 
yourselves in the knowledge and the ways of reli- 
gion ? Never forget to bring your Bible into 
contact with them, and though they be written 
by the wisest and the best of human beings, do 
not hesitate to reject what they contain, if they 
have departed from the record of the Bible, and 
"teach for doctrines the commandments of men." Do 
you come into God's house that you may hear his 
servants, and engage in his worship ? Bring your 
Bibles in your hand and in your heart, and lend an 
obedient ear to the preacher, and let your feelings 
go along with the services, only while they are 
faithful to the truths of the Bible. Do you go to 
the throne of grace ? Be careful not only to pray 
under the influence, and according to the direc- 
tions of your Bible, but let it be your fervent and 
persevering petition that the Bible may become 



SEll. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. ,507 



every day more precious in your esteem, — that you 
may discern it more spiritually, that you may be- 
lieve it more firmly, that you may love it more ar- 
dently, that you may obey it more conscientiously 
and more diligently. 

Again, you have received benefit by attending 
the public ordinances of the gospel. And can 
I urge a better or more powerful motive for per- 
suading you to persevere in that attendance ? What 
reason have you to be grateful to the God of all 
grace, that you are so liberally furnished with the 
public means of instruction and improvement, — 
that the Sabbath regularly returns to you, with all 
its spiritual comforts and advantages, — that the 
sanctuary of the Lord is open to you with its pure 
doctrine and its scriptural worship,— -and that a com- 
munion-table is spread in the wilderness for the 
nourishment and refreshment of your souls ? And 
what reason have you to be grateful that your at- 
tention to these has been so blessed of heaven, that 
you can say from your own experience, " It has 
been good for us to draw near unto God, to keep 
his day holy, to go into his house, to listen to his 
word, to join in his service, and to partake of the 
memorials of a Redeemer's love ?" Be exhorted to 
show your gratitude by continuing to wait upon the 
Lord in all the ordinances of his appointment, — by 
observing these with all the decency and with all 
the punctuality, and with all the affection which 
their nature and importance demand, and by giving 
them that prominent place in your regard and in 



O08 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 



your practice which, in every point of view, they 
are justly entitled to hold. Never neglect them 
on any frivolous or unjustifiable pretext, as if the 
business or the pleasures of this world could at any 
time deserve the preference. Let none of them be 
deemed of little consequence, or of inferior obliga- 
tion. Go not, in the least degree, into the false 
notions of nominal professors and ungodly men, 
that they are not essential to any, or that they are 
not useful to all. You know that such notions are 
idle, dangerous, and false : and you know also that 
they are too generally prevalent. But this con- 
sideration should render you the more zealous, 
and devout, and consistent in your attachment to 
the ordinances of religion. To manifest such an 
attachment is a duty which you owe both to your- 
selves and to others. You owe it to your own 
character, which you are bound to improve by 
every means in your power. You owe it to the 
gospel, to the truth and authority of which it is 
incumbent on you to give the most open and une- 
quivocal testimony. You owe it to your brethren, 
whom you are called on to support by your coun- 
tenance, and guide and animate by your example. 
And you owe it to those who are " set over you in 
the Lord," whom it is your own interest to encou- 
rage in their labours, and who, if I may judge by 
what I myself have felt, derive no small portion of 
their encouragement, as well as of their comfort, 
from your regular and pious attendance on their 
ministrations. 



SEIt. °Mi THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. 50{) 

I have one exhortation more to give you, my 
Christian friends, and it is this— -continue in the 
ways of righteousness, and abound yet more and 
more in godliness and good works. 

You will do me the justice to admit, that though 
I have insisted strenuously on the doctrines of 
grace, as the peculiar and leading doctrines of the 
gospel, I have no less strenuously inculcated the 
necessity of holiness, as at once plainly prescribed, 
and in every way encouraged by the Christian 
system. And, I have no doubt, that you have felt 
" the grace of God which has appeared, bringing 
salvation, teaching you to deny all ungodliness, 
and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, 
and godly in this present world." Now I beseech 
you to magnify the power of divine grace, by walk- 
ing, with unshaken firmness, and increased alacrity, 
in the ways of God's commandments. Far from 
becoming " weary in well doing," you must be 
" stedfast and immoveable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord." Give constant and growing 
proof that your knowledge is practical ; that your 
faith is a living fountain of obedience ; that your 
religion is not a set of speculative opinions, about 
which you can only talk, and dispute, and dogma- 
tise ; but a system of active and holy principles, by 
the operation of which your heart and conduct are 
made conformable to the will of God. Show that 
the sanctifying influence of the gospel is minute 
and universal ; that it extends to every situation of 
life, and every branch of duty j that it regulates 

6 



510 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER^ FAREWELL. SER. c 2%. 

alike the inward temper and the outward behaviour. 
Show it in the fervour of your piety, in the inte- 
grity of your dealings, in the purity of your con- 
versation, in the warmth, the extent, the activity, 
the disinterestedness, the spirituality, of your bene- 
volence. Show it in your several relations — as 
husbands and wives — as parents and children — as 
brothers and sisters — as masters and servants — as 
teachers and taught — as neighbours and friends. 
Show it in your various circumstances — in riches 
and in poverty — in prosperity and in adversity — 
in health and in sickness — in joy and in sorrow- 
in obscurity and in eminence— -in society and in 
retirement — in youth and in advanced age — in life 
and at death. See that there be nothing wanting 
which may contribute to the completeness of your 
character. <c Add to your faith, virtue ; and to 
virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; 
and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, 
godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; 
and to brotherly kindness, charity ; that these 
things being in you, and abounding, you may be 
neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of 
Jesus Christ." Never " think that you have al- 
ready attained, or that you are already perfect, but 
forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching 
forth to those that are before, press toward the 
mark for the prize of your high calling." " Wait 
on the Lord that you may run and not be weary, 
that you may walk and not faint." Depend upon 
the grace of God, and pray for it, that you may be 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FARHWELL. 511 

" strengthened with all might in the inner man," 
and " go on your way rejoicing." Be ever looking 
forward to the heavenly joy that is set before you, 
that you may be purified by the hope which it in- 
spires, that you may be animated in the path of 
Christian duty, and that you may be gradually ripen- 
ed for the society of those, who having " kept the 
faith and finished their course," have entered into 
that " rest which remaineth for the people of 
God." 

Let me now address myself to those who have 
been awakened to some concern about their spi- 
ritual state, and led to inquire about the way of 
salvation. To you I would say, " continue in the 
things which you have learned." The concern 
which you feel respects the most interesting and 
important of all subjects, the salvation of your 
souls : and with that, surely, you can never be 
too much, or too solicitously, occupied : It may 
engage too little of your attention ; this is your 
danger ; but there is no risk of your going to 
excess in earnestness and anxiety concerning the 
happiness of that never-dying principle which lives 
within you. The inquiry on which you have en- 
tered is too momentous to be forgotten or neglect- 
ed ; it regards nothing less than the method by which 
you are to escape the eternal punishment to which, 
as sinners, you have been condemned, and to re- 
gain the eternal felicity, which, as sinners, you have 
forfeited and lost. O what a glorious object is this 



&l c 2 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 

before you ! And is there any thing- in the way of 
difficulty, or of exertion, or of suffering, that should 
discourage you from the pursuit of it ? Surely it is 
worthy of your best and most strenuous and perse- 
vering exertions. In its own nature, it consists of 
all that you can desire, and of all that you can con- 
ceive of good ; nay, it surpasses both. And then you 
are sure of success in the pursuit. No doubt you 
will meet with occasional interruptions : the world 
and your own hearts and the wicked one, and 
the evil companions with whom you have hitherto 
associated, and the seducing pleasures of whose va- 
nity and guilt you are more than half persuaded, 
will all combine to infuse doubts into your minds, 
to make you stop short in your religious inquiries, 
to induce you to go back to that state of careless- 
ness and sin from which you had partly escaped. 
But against these be continually on your guard. 
They have never yet conducted you in a good way, 
nor afforded you any real comfort. Take up the 
resolution, then, that you will listen to them no 
more, till you have fully satisfied yourself respect- 
ing the truth and excellence of the gospel, and till 
you have fairly tried what it is to be a disciple of 
Jesus Christ. Do this, and be assured that soon, 
very soon, you will obtain the victory over all the 
opposition which now lies in your way. " Follow 
on to know the Lord," and you shall know him. 
Continue to " search the Scriptures,'' as containing 
" the words of eternal life, and testifying of the 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER^ FAREWELL. 513 



Saviour. Cease not to pray for direction and as- 
sistance from that Great Being whose favour it is 
your object as it will be your happiness to obtain. 
Make diligent use of all the means of illumination 
with which Providence has furnished you. And be 
resolved to embrace the truth, wherever you shall 
find it, and whatever sacrifices of private opinion 
and of worldly affection it may require of you. 
Thus shall you, I say it with confidence, attain at 
length that faith which is to " the saving of the soul," 
which spreads over the mind that " peace of God 
which passeth understanding/' and is accompanied 
with that "joy which is unspeakable and full of 
glory." 

I must now, in the last place, address those 
who have derived no benefit from my ministry ; 
who have given a partial, or it may be a regular, 
attendance on the services of the sanctuary, but are 
as careless — as unbelieving — as impenitent as ever. 

I should be extremely willing — I should be de- 
lighted — to believe that there were no such persons 
in this congregation ; or if there were, to pass them 
over in silent sorrow, and with prayer to God that 
it might please him to change their hearts. But it is 
impossible to disguise the fact that there are such 
persons ; and the fact is too melancholy and affect- 
ing to admit of my repressing the feelings which it 
awakens, or of omitting this opportunity to make 
another, and a last attempt to reclaim them to 
" glory and to virtue." 

Your consciences, my friends, must accuse you ; 
2 L 



514 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 

and if you be not hardened to a degree that I can- 
not allow myself to suppose, they must also con- 
demn you, It is natural for you, however, in that 
case to frame some apologies, by which your 
conduct may be vindicated, or your guilt alleviated. 
What these may be I cannot pretend to imagine. 
But sure I am that whatever they may be, they can 
be nothing but " refuges of lies." In this happy 
land, where saving knowledge abounds, it is im- 
possible for you to urge any substantial apology, 
or any satisfactory vindication. With regard to 
the privileges which you have enjoyed here, I shall 
make all the concessions which can be reasonably 
asked. I may have been in fault. I may not have 
laboured with sufficient earnestness. I may not 
have placed the doctrine of salvation before you in 
its most striking aspects. I may not have always 
" rightly divided the word of truth." All this I 
am willing to acknowledge ; and under a convic- 
tion of its truth, I am ready to cry out, " God be 
merciful to me, a sinner." 

But think not that any deficiencies of mine will 
excuse your indifference to the concerns of your im- 
mortal souls, or justify you for living in rebellion 
against the God of heaven, and in contempt of the 
Saviour of sinners. You must account for the ad- 
vantages which you have enjoyed, be they gret:t or 
small. If much has been given you, much will be 
required of you. If little has been given, the less 
will be required, Still, however, there is some- 
thing to be required ; and without presuming to have 



SER. 22. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. 515 



exceeded, or even reached the ordinary average of 
ministerial talent and fidelity, your responsibility 
is great and awful, and well calculated to rouse 
you to serious thought and alarming anticipation. 
I have at least delivered to you the great message 
of the gospel. I have told you of your guilt. 
I have warned you of your danger. I have be- 
sought you to " flee from the wrath to come," to be 
" reconciled unto God," to accept of eternal life. I 
have represented to you the cross of Christ, as " the 
power of God and the wisdom of God for salvation, 
to every one that bejieveth." I have used many 
arguments to convince you, and many motives to 
persuade you. I have endeavoured to alarm you 
by the terrors of the law, and to allure you by the 
mercies of the gospel. I have addressed myself to 
your hopes and your fears, to your love, your grati- 
tude, your honour, and your interest. And by the 
means with which this sacred volume has furnished 
me, I have tried to awaken you from the delusions 
of sin — to separate you from the enchantments of an 
evil world — to deliver you from the bondage of in- 
ward corruption, and, through the ministry of the 
simple truth as it is in Jesus, to conduct you in that 
way which leads to heaven and to glory. I have 
done this ; but it has produced no effect ; and in 
that consists your guilt, and from that results your 
danger. You and your minister must appear before 
the tribunal of God and answer for our conduct. 
Whether I be on the right hand, or on the left, I 
must be a witness against you, and if you persevere 



516 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S FAREWELL. SER. 22. 

in misimprovement and indifference, my testimony 
must be this : "I delivered to these, my hearers, 
the message of God, but they turned a deaf ear to it ; 
I offered them the salvation of the gospel, but they 
refused it ; I showed them the love of a bleeding 
Saviour, but they were unmoved by it ; I endeav- 
oured to alarm them by the punishment of hell, but 
they braved it ; I tried to kindle in them the fire 
of holy ambition, by unfolding to them the joys of 
heaven, but they despised it ; I cast upon them 
the light of God's word, but they shut their eyes 
against it ; I exhorted, I remonstrated, I pleaded, 
and I prayed with them, but they would not come 
unto Christ that they might have life ; they chose 
to live in sin, to die in impenitence, and to come 
into eternity, unsanctified and unforgiven." Alas ! 
and must this be my testimony? And what will 
you be able to say to it ? If you should attempt 
to deny it, " your own hearts would condemn 
you ; and God, who is greater than your hearts, 
and knoweth all things, would also condemn you." 
And what will He say to you ? " As for these mine 
enemies, who would not that I should rule over 
them, take them and cast them into outer darkness, 
where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing 
of teeth." This is the sentence of an Almighty 
and avenging God. Are you able to escape it ? 
Are you prepared to bear it ? Are you resolv- 
ed to set it at defiance ? O no. " Who can dwell 
with devouring flames, who can lie down in ever- 
lasting burnings ?" You cannot thus go deliberately 



ser. St. the christian minister's farewell. 517 

into eternal ruin. Suffer me to hope that my last, 
my fondest, my most earnest entreaty will not be 
disregarded. Listen to the voice of God to-day, and 
no longer harden your hearts. This moment let the 
resolution be formed that you will have nothing 
more to do with sin ; this moment vow to the Lord 
that you will henceforth be his ; this moment let 
your perishing souls be cast into the arms of 
Christ, and surrendered to his saving power, 
This moment let your aspirations ascend to the 
throne of heaven for pardoning mercy, and for 
sanctifying grace, and for life everlasting. There 
is mercy, and grace, and life, for the chief of 
sinners, and for you. " Believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ and ye shall be saved." " Repent and be 
converted, and your sins shall be blotted out." Em- 
brace the overtures of the gospel, cherish its spirit, 
submit to its authority, and "all things shall be yours, 
for ye shall be Christ's and Christ is God's." With 
this exhortation, and in the comfortable hope that 
you will comply with it, I now bid you farewell, 
" commending you all to God and to the word of his 
grace. May the Lord bless and keep you. May 
the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be 
gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his counte- 
nance upon you and give you peace." — Amen. 



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